Four county bridges to close for "essential repairs"
Four bridges in Shropshire are to close for essential repair work, the council has said.
Colehurst Cottages Bridge in Market Drayton, which carries an unclassified road over a tributary of the River Tern, will be closed from June 9 to June 10.
The work will involve taking down and rebuilding the right end of the downstream parapet.
To carry out the proposed work safely, Shropshire Council say it will be necessary to close the bridge 24/7 to vehicular traffic.
Access over the bridge for pedestrians and dismounted cyclists will remain available throughout the work, which is being out by the Council’s maintenance contractor Kier.
Clun Bridge is also set to close for repair work for similar maintenance.
The town's bridge will shut from June 21 to June 23 for work to take down and rebuild damaged sections to both parapets, and general pointing works.
The closure will be in force from 9.30am to 4pm.
And Shropshire Council is also to close Nut Tree Bridge near Morda, Oswestry from June 19 to July 11.
The three week closure will also see Sweeny Mountain Road (Whitehaven A495 Junction To Nut Tree Crossroads) closed to traffic while work is carried out.
The work will involve the treatment of surface corrosion to the bottom flanges of the bridges main beams and application of a protective system. There will also be general repointing and replacement of missing masonry work, and the removal of vegetation and moss from the structure.
Shell Brook Bridge – which carries the ‘unclassified’ road Pant Lane over Llanyfelin Brook – is also set to close from June 26 to 30 June [2023] for repair work.
The work will involve repairs to the masonry parapet and scour protection of the upstream left and right training walls, and general vegetation removal from the structure.
A spokesperson for Shropshire Council said that "every effort will be made to minimise disruption" while all four bridges are being repaired.
The closures come after it was revealed earlier that of the 780 bridges in Shropshire, 17 were discovered to be of substandard condition in 2022.
The research by the RAC Foundation showed that around £40 million needs to be spent on bridges in Shropshire to repair substandard bridges are those that are either too weak to carry 40-tonne vehicles or those with a weight restriction for environmental reasons such as a narrow bridge or narrow approach roads.
