BRIDGES AND MODERN TRAFFIC.
Page 9
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A Difficult Municipal Problem. Villages that are Isolated. _
J. N, a. report to theeWest, Riding County Council the Highways Committee says, in common with other highway authorities, it is confronted with a problem of some difficulty relating to the maintenance of railway and canal bridges carrying main roads, a problem accentuated during the past few years by the rapid development of heavy motor trantion.
Whilet, it is the duty of a highway authority to maintain the roads in a fit condition to bear ordinary traffic upon them—and. as the ordinary traffic expands or changes In character, so must the nature of the maintenance and repair of the highway be altered to suit the change—yet, on the other hand, the statutory obligations, in general, of a canal or railway company merel, impose upon the company a liability to maintain their bridges in the same condition as to strength in relation to traffic as they wero at the date of completion, and the company is not under any liability to improve and strengthen a bridge so as to make it sufficient to bear the ordinary traffic of the district which may reasonably be expected to pass over it, accordingto the standard of the present clay. Moreover, the bridges being the property elf the statutory undertakers, highway authorities (in the absence of agreement) would appear to, have no right to interfere with the 'structure.
This is an extremely 'unsatisfactory and anomalous state of the law, Tendered more objectionable by the provisions of . the Heavy Motor Car Order of 1907, enabling the parties liable for the repair of these bridges to restrict their use to axle weights of low tonnage by prescribed notices stating that the bridges are insufficient to carry the weights referred to in the Order.
The provisions as to arbitration were very unsatisfactory, and an attempt was made to deal with the position under the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919, which provides that an appeal shall lie to the Minister in respect of any reetriction neon any traffic passing over any bridge, and the Minister is given power to make such Order as he may think fit concerning the strengthening, standard of maintenance of any bridge, the traffic using it, and apportionment of any expenditure involved, but no Order by the Minister is to enlarge the pecuniary liability of any railway or canal company or impose any new liability upon any such company. A concrete and urgent case has arisen in the Thorne Rural District. The township -of Thorne is Co situated that it cannot be entered or left without crossing the waterway of the South Yorkshire Navigation Co., and the company have by prescribed notices prohibited certain specified weights from passing over their bridges, thus cutting off the town (which has a population of 6,000 inhabitants) from all heavy industrial traffic. An appeal has been hedged against this restriction to the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry has approached the committee on the matter and asked for its views.
The committee is in communication with the navigation authority and other parties interested with a view to some arrangement being made to relieve an intolerable situation, and a further report will be-submitted. It is understood that substantial financial assistance may be looked for from the Ministry, provided the navigation authority are prepared to recognize their obligations in the event of the reconstruction of the bridges.
Whilst immediate action must be taken a Thorne, the committee is •of opinion that the general question should be dealt with by fresh legialatiea which would _put an end to suele an unfortunate and anomalous state of things. It is feared that in the present congested condition of Parliamentary business the prospect of the introduction of the Government's Bill for the general amend. meat of highway law (long overduel is remote, but the committee, nevertheless, feels, that urgent representation upon the subject of these bridges should be made to the Government, and that-any Bill introduced should be directed to the application to these statutory madertakings of the common law principle that. where a highway is cut through 'there is. an implied condition to peovide a sufficie.nt substitute for public passage.
In view of the numerous bridges in the Riding owned by railway and meal companies, a general policy must be laid down, and the committee will bring up a. further report. 'Meanwhile, the committee recommends the county council to pass the following resolution :—
"That in the opinion of the County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire, new legislation is urgently necessary to deal with the question of the standard of repair, maintenance and reconstruction of railway and canal bridges, and that His Majesty's Government be requested to take stops for the introduction of a Bill dealing with the subject at the earliest practicable date. That a copy of this resolution be for warded to the Ministry of Transport, to the County Councils Association and to West Riding Members of Parliament.",