New bridge is an ‘eyesore’
Work on £4.5m structure blasted
A councillor is locked in a bitter row with Network Rail over safety work at a city centre bridge.
Danny Gibson has called on the company to scrap a proposal to fit galvanised steel plates to the parapets of Shore Road Bridge.
The plates were added to increase the height of the parapets and deter children from climbing or dropping wire on to live electricity cables below.
But the Stirling North Labour councillor has described the plates as “ugly” and a “blight on the community” and called on the company to increase the height of the parapets with the material used to build it.
But Network Rail say they used the steel plates because ground conditions forced them to look for a “lightweight solution” to the problem of the parapet extensions.
Shore Road Bridge was replaced at a cost of £4.5 million to accommodate new electric trains and the wires needed to run them.
The project was part of wider work to introduce electric trains to the Dunblane-Stirling-Alloa line, and the bridge opened to traffic in April, 2014.
Twelve months later it emerged that the bridge’s parapets had been built to a height of 1.5 metres, from the footpath, rather the 1.8 metres required under EU standards.
Network Rail were in May, 2015, granted planning permission to rectify the matter by bolting to the apex, along the top of the parapets, metal plates which would increase their overall height to 1.8 metres.
A short time later metal panels were attached to the sides of the bridge, raising the eyebrows of residents and angering Councillor Gibson.
He demanded that the panels be removed and in a letter to Network Rail, said: “Even if this is more expensive for (you) then so be it. I don’t see why the community should be left with an aesthetic eyesore to save money for Network Rail, especially given the community support for the bridge and patience shown by residents during its replacement and continued electrification programme delays.”
Councillor Gibson also wanted to know why steel, capable of conducting electricity, had been used to protect passers-by from electric power lines.
And he added that during similar recent work by Network Rail to the bridge in Perth Road, Dunblane, material the same or similar to that found in the old structure was used in the re-build.
“I don’t think it is too much to ask for the same in Stirling,” he added.
Community liaison manager for Network Rail Scotland Kirsty Mackay said the plates were removed from the bridge several weeks ago for painting.
In a response to Councillor Gibson, she added: “When we reconstructed Shore Road in 2013, we had to minimise the load. We built up around the original piers with lightweight concrete so as to minimise any additional load on the structure as the ground conditions in the area are poor. That is why the parapet extensions must be a light weight solution.”
Councillor Gibson was unhappy with the reply and plans to take the matter up with senior officials of Network Rail and the council.
“I am not an engineer but given the weight of the traffic – and volume at present due to Kerse Road closure – I really fail to see how the weight of replacement concrete columns or simply concrete sections added to the top would really add that much weight as to cause a major concern,” he added. “Even columns added to the top which were hollow could achieve the right balance here.”
Even if this is more expensive then so be it