One in every 25 local road bridges are unable to carry heaviest vehicles

ONE in every 25 bridges on Britain’s local roads are unable to carry the heaviest vehicles, new figures show.

Motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, which carried out the analysis, expressed concerns over the impact of severe weather and a shortage of engineering skills.

It found that local authorities identified 2,928 of the 73,208 bridges they are responsible for as being substandard at the end of last year.

This means they are too weak to be used by 44-tonne lorries, the heaviest vehicles allowed on public roads.

Many of these bridges are subject to weight restrictions, while others are under programmes of increased monitoring or even managed decline.

Devon is the local authority area with the most substandard bridges at 222, followed by Essex (148), Somerset (128), Suffolk (119) and Cheshire East (108).

Some are substandard because they were built to earlier design standards, while others have deteriorated through age and use.

Cracks in the pedestals of Hammersmith Bridge, west London, have led to motor vehicles being banned from using the 136-yearold cast iron structure since April 2019.

The proportion of bridges that are substandard has fallen from 4.4 per cent a year ago to four per cent.

Between them, local authorities said they would ideally want to bring 1,955 of their substandard bridges back up to full carrying capacity.

But budget constraints mean they anticipate that only 292 will have the necessary work carried out on them within the next five years. The bridge maintenance work backlog across Britain is an estimated £6.8bn.

The analysis was based on data provided by 201 councils in response to freedom of information requests, and was carried out in partnership with Adept, a group representing local authority bosses responsible for transport and other sectors.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “This data should not be used as a stick to beat highway authorities with.

“While on the one hand it looks like councils are holding their own in keeping their road networks functioning, with every year which passes we are seeing the challenge of maintaining climate resilience increase in the face of more extreme weather.”