What once seemed like a win-win idea—renting out obsolete bridge-tender cabins on Amsterdam’s movable canal bridges—has turned into an ironic nightmare in which the city is having to rent back its own property at inflated rates because it turns out that bridge tenders weren’t obsolete after all.
About 15 years ago, the city decided that the cabins and the employees who worked in them were no longer needed, because modern remote-control systems could operate the 40 swing and lift bridge that cross the canals. The city contracted out 25 of the cabins to a hotel chain, which charges up to hundreds of Euros a night—whether they are occupied by a tourist or a bridge tender.
After widespread technical problems and mishaps with the bridges, the city’s waterway authority realized that at least nine of them required on-site operators. It is renting back two of the cabins, at full price, about €70,000 a year, and at other sites has been forced to spend money on shipping containers for temporary use.
City council officials have not come up with a permanent solution yet.
