There has been trouble with the old bridge over the Menai Strait for years now. Recently, it had just been open in both direction for quite a while. There was clearly some work going on; there were vans of a rope access company parked near it all the time, and there were tripods from which people were hoisted up and down on the pavement. I'm not entirely sure what they were doing. But for a while, it only meant that one of the pavements was closed.
Then one day I was biking home and I noticed that the whole bridge was closed in the direction I was travelling. We had gone tidal again! In the morning, you are only allowed to drive from the island to the mainland, and in the afternoon, you can only drive the other way. So all the traffic in one of the directions has to go over the new bridge (which is an entire 16 years younger than the old one), and that causes traffic jams. This had happened before. It didn't affect me very much; I can go over the pavement with my bike. But it can be a right nuisance for car travel.
When Dei and I tried to get back from Anglesey to main campus after our trip to Parys Mountain, It took a lot longer than normal, as we were travelling in the wrong direction at the wrong time.
I hope it doesn't stay like this for a long time! Even though I can travel in any direction by becoming a pedestrian, it does add to your travel time if you have to walk over the bridge. And if there is no one else on the bridge I will just bike, but if there are pedestrians I do get off my bike. I don't think I'll soon have a reason to drive to work, but if I do, I am obviously going in the wrong direction. That would be annoying! But I suppose a 200-year-old bridge needs some maintenance once in a while. This is a lot better than it falling into ruin…
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