Birstall Footbridge repair

[Richard T]

This has been taken away for repair -see link

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Birstall-bridge-taken-away-painting/story-27999021-detail/story.html

 

A temporary structure has been put in place - this is not floating but built from scaffolding , boarded over and covered in roofing felt to give a non-slip finish. Looks like the work is being carried out by May- Gurney who are now part of Kier.

The bridge was in need of repair and carries a large number of people especially at weekends.

[matty40s]

Unbelievable waste of licence payers money if it was just painting which the article (and \CRt) state.

.

[Richard T]

Unbelievable waste of licence payers money if it was just painting which the article (and \CRt) state.

.

Matty,

 

The bridge had serious corrosion - I looked at it a few months ago. Incidentally how do you paint the underside of a steel deck when it is only about 1m above the water level?

[matty40s]

Lower the water level and paint in a wetsuit - has been done before.

Nowhere in the article/press release does it state repairs or corrosion......whatever we have all seen...

[David Mack]

They'll get a much better paint job in factory conditions, and if the existing paint/rust needs blasting off, then the debris won't end up in the river.

[trackman]

It's over the river Matty. Not so easy to mess with water levels especially with the EA dictating terms.

 

It's over 20 years since I last painted a BR bridge over a watercourse, but even then the cost of complying with anti pollution requirements was huge. These days it's far more costly. Essentially the bridge has to be totally coccooned.

 

For a small bridge like this, I'd guess what has been done is far cheaper than painting in situ.

[Narrowboat and Narrowdogs]

Hoping when it comes back it's not as slippy in wet conditions. It's lethal when wet, I should imagine a lot of its life is spent in the wetstuff.

[baz gimson]

It's on the Soar so liable to flooding this time of year. When it floods that bridge is normally submerged.