The General Mihajlo Apostolski bridge has two nicknames in Skopje and neither is flattering. "The bridge that leads nowhere" is the more accurate one. "The fishing bridge" is the more damning, because it describes what people were actually doing on a structure nobody was allowed to drive across.

From tomorrow that is supposed to stop. Skopje mayor Orce Đorđievski has announced the start of the demolition of buildings and the cutting through of the route that is meant to connect the bridge to the rest of the road network.

The bridge is an extension of ASNOM boulevard and is meant to link the municipalities of Aerodrom and Gazi Baba. Construction began in 2020, under the then mayor Petre Šilegov. The structure was completed in the years that followed, but putting it into use was postponed because of unresolved property issues and the expropriation of buildings along the route.

In other words, we built a bridge before settling the question of where it leads. That is a sequence that repeats here often enough to surprise nobody.

According to Đorđievski, the deadline for the relocation of residents who have been paid their expropriation compensation in full has passed, removing the obstacles to starting work on the ground.

"The practice of the past, where citizens were left without an answer and waited years for payment, is over. The expropriation compensation was paid immediately, and the City helped residents through the relocation process," the mayor said, adding that he personally stood behind those citizens.

"Cutting through the route will create the conditions for the bridge to finally be fully brought into operation," Đorđievski said. He noted that the works had been announced within a four-year deadline, but that the procedure was completed earlier than planned.

There is one detail here worth holding on to. What blocked this for five years was not the structure, nor the money for it, but the agreement with the people whose houses stood on the route. The bridge was finished; the expropriation procedure was not.

So "completed ahead of schedule" is an accurate statement about the final phase, but not about the project. The project has been running late since 2020, and it ran late on precisely the part that any serious plan settles before the first concrete is poured.

The next step is clearing the site and cutting through the route. Only then come the remaining works to open the bridge fully to traffic.