1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156 
Bridge work delayed by quibbles over bill
Page 12
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• by Guy Sheppard Vital safety work on 500 road-over-rail bridges is being held up because of a dispute over who picks up the bill, an engineering expert has warmed.
Consultant engineer Professor John Knapton says investment is urgently needed to prevent a repeat of the Selby rail disaster, when a vehicle plunged on to the East Coast Main Line after its driver fell asleep at the wheel.
Knapton claims that the bridges all need crash barriers and about 30% of them need additional safety measures, such as warning signs and road re-alignment. "These are where rural roads have been widened but the bridges haven't, so are quite dangerous," he explains. "They have anti-trespassing fencing but they really need barriers."
His estimate of 500 bridges in need of attention is based on a survey he conducted in the North-East. This revealed that safety work on a third of the bridges has been put on hold.
Brake, the road safety campaign group, arranged a meeting with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Road Safety last week to highlight the danger. Brake is angry that a protocol to clarify whether local authorities, the Highways Agency or Network Rail should pay for the safety work is still being drawn up nearly two years after the Selby crash.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport says the protocol will be ready early in the new year but she claims that crash barriers are not always the best way of improving safety roaclirail intersections: 'Research suggests that it may sometimes be better for a car to leave the road altogether than for it to bounce back and involve other people in a potential accident.'
She adds that there are an average of 12 accidents a year at the 10,000 road/rail intersections across the country.
Details of Knapton's research can be found on www.john-knapton.com • See Sound Off, page 44.