Colwall Green Railway Bridge progress report 6

Public meeting held on Wednesday 27 February

At a public meeting held at Colwall Primary School on Wednesday 27 February Herefordshire Council and Network Rail gave a commitment and a clear timetable for the village to get a brand new bridge in little more that one year.

Network Rail, which owns the bridge and is responsible for its maintenance, said it usually took three years to build a new bridge. But following negotiations at the highest level between the company and the council, the programme has been fast tracked to enable a new bridge to be built and opened by March 2009.

Herefordshire Council and Network Rail confirmed that funding was available to construct the new bridge to timetable. The meeting of 120 Colwall residents was told that the process of appointing the right contractor for the job would begin straight away, and would take around three months.

From June, the bridge would be designed with the contractor and necessary approvals obtained. Work on fabricating the new structure would begin in October to prepare for the old bridge to be demolished in February next year and the new one constructed with a planned opening in March 2009.

In the meantime, Herefordshire Council said it would work with Colwall Parish Council to improve lighting and signage for the restrictive 'chicane' route of the existing bridge and reassess diversion routes.

The current chicane system for light traffic over the bridge was defended. Although it appeared crude it was designed to be as safe as possible. If the design width to the carriageway was altered by even a small amount, the traffic would put unacceptable stresses on the weaker girders within the bridge. (See below for planned improvements to the route.)

The council stated that it subsidises bus services in the Colwall area and is putting in extra funds from the bridge works project to make sure that extra re-routing costs to operators are not passed on to passengers.

It had been planned to provide a temporary bridge over the existing bridge as an interim measure but engineers determined, following the issue of an assessment report in January 2008, that it would not be a satisfactory solution. Even if implemented, a temporary bridge would have cost £1/2 million and could have resulted in the building of a new bridge being put back in the Network Rail's regional bridge building programme.

Next steps for the construction of the new bridge

The key to the proposal for an accelerated programme is the removal of time for contingencies outside the control of Network Rail and Herefordshire Council and a minimisation of design and construction processes.

The key steps to the bridge replacement include the following work: procurement of design and construction services, bridge design and approval processes, fabrication of the new structure, installation of a temporary footbridge, diversion of services (gas, electricity, telephone) demolition of the existing bridge and bridge reconstruction.

Pedestrian traffic will be accommodated by the provision of a temporary footbridge during the works. However there will be a period when vehicular traffic will not be able to cross and hence will need to follow the signed diversion route. This bridge closure will be minimised as much as possible. Network Rail and Herefordshire Council will be working together to deliver the project.

The programme does not allow for contingencies such as environmental factors affecting the works that are outside Network Rail's control. See the programme for the new bridge works, as presented at the meeting.

Temporary route for light traffic

The Council is aware of residents' concerns for the current route over the bridge. Following a formal audit a number of amendments have been identified. These will include the following:

• Phase 1 (by mid April) Install "cats eyes" to the edge of the carriageway, removal of overhanging branches, apply road markings and hatching, additional signing, improvements to the pedestrian route, changes to the fencing, installation of chevron markings.
• Phase two (within 4 months due to the need for approvals from other organisations) street lighting, improvements to the traffic signals and additional signing.

Progress reports - If you wish to receive forthcoming progress reports direct by e-mail please contact the council through the routes given below. The next progress report will be issued in April.

For further information please contact Herefordshire Council, Highways and Transportation, Unit 3 Thorn Business Park, Rotherwas, Hereford, HR2 6JT, Telephone 01432 261800, email streets@herefordshire.gov.uk This sheet can also be obtained from the Colwall Parish Council website and from the Herefordshire Info shop Ledbury.