Pledge for fewer bridge hold-ups
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by Lee Kimber • The Highways Agency promised to minimise delays to hauliers last week after it was forced to admit to a House of Commons committee that 740 of the UK's bridges need major truck restrictions.
Only one truck will be allowed at a time on some rural bridges while one-way working will be imposed on others.
The bans are necessary because the Government has refused to release the J.:1.5bn needed to strengthen bridges to take 40-tonne lorries after 1999.
Highways Agency chief executive Lawrie Haynes told MPs that the Government had agreed to provide I.2.2bn to
strengthen the bridges to EU standards but only released £700m of it.
"We're pledged to minimise delays to hauliers," a Highways Agency official says. "But some of our bridges were built before the internal combustion engine was even thought of."
The agency is making improvements to bridges on major routes a priority in a bid to reduce disruption but admitted that one-way working cannot be ruled out—even on bridges such as the M4 flyover into London.
"Almost any bridge needs looking at," the official says, "but a modern bridge probably only needs a bit of fine tuning."