Building bridges

Almost £3.5m is being invested to strengthen three road-over-rail bridges in Fylde to bring them up to European standards.

The strengthening work is being carried out on Park View Road in Lytham, The Crescent in St Annes and Station Road in Wrea Green, which are all on the Preston to Blackpool South line.

The bridges have been assessed by Network Rail as part of the Bridgeguard 3 programme, which is looking at nearly 1,000 bridges in the North West to ensure they are able to carry the large commercial road vehicles now permitted on Britain’s roads under recent EU legislation.

Work on all the bridges is being carried out between November and the end of March 2007. The Crescent and Station Road bridges will be entirely funded by Lancashire County Council. Park View Road will be funded by Network Rail and Lancashire County Council.

The work involves extensive brickwork repairs to the arch and side walls, including tying in dislodged bricks, replacing crumbling bricks (which have been affected by rain and frost), grouting and pointing. Once this has been done, the bridge deck will be demolished and the structure will be prepared to accept the new precast concrete beams, which will be lifted into place using a crane. Finally the new concrete bridge deck will be laid before the road surface is renewed. Once the work is complete the bridges will be able to carry up to 40 tonne vehicles.