“A pretext, quite clearly”

For the ‘Biergerinitiativ Gemeng Suessem’ (BIGS), disaster announces itself in a rather inconspicuous form. At the roadside, two squared timbers marked in blue are stuck in the ground. Another is lying around down the road and there is no trace of the fourth. Here somewhere, near the municipality of Sanem, a wildlife overpass, about 30 metres wide, should connect the ‘Zämerbësch’ (located to the east) with the ‘Bobësch’ (to the west) in 2024. But first, and this is a central point in this story, the CR110 has to be lowered.

The rather busy ‘Chemin Repris’ connects the communities of ‘Käerjeng’ and ‘Suessem’ and has been running under the tracks since 2009. This state road would need to be lowered so that another project can be implemented: the Käerjeng bypass. The ‘Contournement Bascharage’ is to be routed past the railway station over CR110, according to ‘Variant 2‘, retained by the government.

“It’s about the preparatory work to cross CR110 via the bypass, 150 metres down the road. That’s what’s being started. The so-called ‘wildlife bridge’ further up is just a pretext for this”, says Patrizia Arendt, secretary of the BIGS. Together with President Bianca Leardini, she meets us on this almost spring-like morning in February at the place of interest. Quite a few people are out for a walk and cyclists from both communities can be seen in this recreational area. When no cars are passing by on the CR110, birds can be heard tweeting from the neighbouring woods, among them is even a woodpecker.