It will be a very long walk (notice switchbacks on far side), but the new pedestrian bridge will be wheelchair- and bicycle-accessible. Because of the distance from the last traffic light eastbound, on January weekends it is almost impossible to cross the road—no gaps in traffic whatsoever. Numerous people have been killed here, including the mother of our contractor, when he was a boy.
Traffic lights would have provided all the same access and would have been cheaper. Guess someone doesn´t want any more delays in the traffic flow to and from PDE.
I asked once at the ANCAP at the far side of this bridge—long before this—and a guy told me they wouldn't be a traffic light because the Ruta 11 bridge (one of only [now] three between Montevideo and Punta del Este) is less than a kilometer away, the implication being that anyone who didn't like the intersection could cross there. I doubt he was thinking of pedestrians.