Unsafe bridges are worrying risk

Our failing infrastructure must be dealt with urgently, says Ian Handford

AREPORT on the condition of Britain’s fast deteriorating road bridges and arches was particularly relevant recently after Network Rail closed the major road serving Paignton from Torquay at Hollicombe.

The bridge on Torbay Road carries all the traffic across the railway line at Hollicombe, a construction by Isambard Brunel involving cast iron girders laid in the 19th century. The RAC Foundation research project report highlights literally thousands of brick or stone bridges and arches throughout Britain that are currently crumbling or unsafe due to inadequate foundations or age.

Knowing that so many historic structures are badly affected is really bad news for road users and pedestrians as they will ultimately be closed. The report also discovered that Devon came top of a socalled “unsafe bridges” list, with the Westcountry as a whole not far behind.

Millions of motorists, public service or commercial drivers and motorcyclists constantly using roads that span railway lines, rivers or culverts etc, now face risks that are worrying.

Currently, some three thousand “sub-standard bridges” have been listed and to bring these back to what the RAC Foundation calls “perfect condition” could cost in excess of £1.16 billion. In Devon we apparently have 229 such bridges and the cost of repairing these (which would have to be met by Devon County Council) will be a figure likely to exceed anything budgeted to date.

Having written about the country’s ailing infrastructure many times before in this paper, features have included highways, water supply, sewage systems and yes even bridges. My last feature actually dealt with Highways England Company (HEC) who had reported failing to repair much of their stock of historic structures, preferring instead to use infill or demolition on bridges or arches, yet without obtaining any planning permission where they were unused. HEC said many of derelict railway structures were in the countryside, so infill or demolition had continued for six decades following Dr Beeching’s closure of railway lines in 1960.

Structures judged “sub-standard” crumbling away or in danger of collapse will create nightmares for drivers. As Steve Gooding RAC Foundation Director says: “Bridges, as defined by highway engineers, come in all shapes and sizes, from soaring structures that span rivers and/or cross estuaries, through modest bridges designed centuries ago for the horse and cart, right down to those that are little more than culvert carrying water under a carriageway. But even the failure of the shortest of these structures could mean a five-foot gap in the carriageway and even on a relatively minor road could cause disruption and possibly a long diversion”.

But even he fails to state who or how the costs of repair, rebuild or demolition could be funded.

Bridges are merely one of a number of infrastructure concerns, with possibly roads the major worry at present for drivers. This may be why members of the Paignton community met recently with Network Rail, only to be assured the main road bridge at Hollicombe could be open by May 23rd. They even learned there could be a possible walkway and cyclist path being created ahead of the new tarmac road. Network Rail further confirmed that its failure to meet the earlier timescales was because of the need to use a technical specialist to relocate the BT fibre-optic cables, which if disturbed would have seen even more chaos when broadband access failed.

Failure of any part of the national infrastructure always highlights the importance of planning legislation and the need to involve local communities.

One disaster recently saw a public protest arise when the community occupied a bridge, which ultimately saw a Demolition Order having to be rescinded. |That resulted in Highways England needing to repair the arch to make it safe for future use. Eventually it came into use when local fields were developed into a housing estate and new business park.

Many historic structures are now used widely by walkers, cyclists, skateboarders, wheelchair users, motorability chairs and electric scooters etc, a situation no-one would have foreseen six decades ago.

As we found at Hollicombe, the standards of yesteryear are today not structurally robust to meet modern weight limits or standards. It seems that local and regional councils, with their ever reducing budgets, will find it very challenging to keep up with deterioration of their structures yet as employed officials, that is what UK law demands they have to do.

Monday: Judi Spiers on the mountains of tasty food at Passovers gone by

Network Rail Work on the railway bridge at Hollicombe