[3] The bridge was badly damaged in the First World War, when retreating Belgian troops rendered it unusable in October 1914, but it was restored by the Germans.

[3] The two decades between the wars marked a period of economic growth, notably for the Boel shipyard, a major employer in the little town.

The owner of the family business, Frans Boel, was elected mayor of Temse in 1933, and he arrived in office with big plans for the bridge.

[3] There was nevertheless a human cost: many construction workers fell into the water while this bridge was being built and in 1952 one of them, Karel Pepermans, lost his life in this way.

It had incorporated a central drawbridge section at the deepest point in the river to accommodate ships up to 30 m (98.4 ft) meters wide.

[3] A few decades later it was then explained that the growth in volume and weight of traffic had exceeded official expectations, and the heavy moving parts of the drawbridge section needed replacing.

This time the bridge was closed to traffic for two years, starting in 1992, with drivers required to divert via the already frequently clogged up routes via Antwerp or Dendermonde.

However, at this stage no steps were taken to increase the capacity of the bridge which reopened with one road lane in each direction (along with the single rail track and the cycle/pedestrian paths) on 29 April 1994.

[3] Options considered and rejected included another Scheldt Tunnel, to be dug at Temse, but this was deemed technically unfeasible.

Following the deliberations and planning, a symbolic "first stone" was put in place in October 2006 and work on a new parallel bridge started in earnest in April 2007.