Row brews over M5 bridge limit
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by Lee Kimber III Hauliers could pay up to £47m over the next three years because the Highways Agency is forcing abnormal loads using the M5's Avonmouth Bridge to cross between 01:00hrs and 03:00hrs on Sundays.
Local hauliers accept that restrictions on trucks weighing 80 tonnes or over 9ft 6in (3.0m) wide are necessary during the three years in which the 35-yearold bridge will be repaired, but they claim they should be allowed more slots to make their police-escorted crossings.
"This is another wait for escorts we'll have to suffer," says Richard Dunkerley, director of IR Dunkerley. "If these restrictions could be raised it might solve part of the problem." He is lobbying local councils and the police for more slots because the two 40-mile long alternative routes for trucks weighing 80-120 tonnes could add up to three quarters of a day in delays—delays that will cost hauliers from 1:750 to £1,000 a day.
But despite a claim by Avon & Somerset police that they escort between 250 and 300 abnormal loads over the bridge each week, the Highways Agency stands by the closure, saying that all the road repair equipment will have to be removed and replaced each time abnormal loads are allowed to cross.
"We're trying to do the best we can for everybody," a spokesman says. "But frankly, an abnormal load causes everyone lots of difficulty."