Beat the bridge bashers
Page 11
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by Derren Hayes
• A national awareness campaign was launched this week in a bid to reduce the number of bridges hit and damaged by lorries each year.
Over the next few weeks thousands of posters, leaflets and stickers for vehicle cabs will be distributed to drivers at transport cafes, motorway service stations and ports throughout the country to highlight the growing problem of bridge bashing.
The campaign has been set up by the Department of Transport and railway infrastructure operator Railtrack, which has also started a 24-hour "Bridge Hotline" for drivers and hauliers to call when planning routes, seeking details of low bridges or reporting damage.
Last year there were 1,101 bridge bashing incidents, an average of three a day, and over the past five years 2,000 bridges have been hit a total of 4,700 times.
Railtrack spends around 5m a year on repairs but estimate disruption to rail services, the blocking of roads and bridge safety checks almost doubles the cost.
Since 1990 one in six bridges struck has had to be repaired, materials have fallen from a further 600 and roads have been blocked more than 1,000 times. The most damaged bridge in the country is in Whitehouse Road, Swindon which has been hit 82 times in six years.
Railtrack is testing various methods of reducing strikes including better warning signs to attract drivers' attention and impact detection devices to quickly inform its control cent-re when a bridge has been struck.
The Hotline number is 0345 003355.
CI The Transport Select Committee inquiry into UK Bridge and Road Maintenance programme has been delayed for four weeks.