Road closures extended due to bridge faults

Road closures close to Manchester Victoria are to be extended, following the discovery of structural defects during Network Rail’s renovation of three historic railway bridges.

The grade two-listed bridges are being renovated in an upgrade that NR said will secure their future for decades to come.

The project was due to be completed in June, but the discovery of defect, hidden by layers of old paintwork on the 175-year old structures, means that work has been extended into July.

This means that Victoria Street will be fully closed to road traffic from 00.01 on Monday 17 June until 23.59 on Saturday 22 June, while Mirabel Street will stay closed at the Victoria Street junction until late July.

While diversions for traffic will be in place during the road closures, pedestrian access will not be affected and trains will continue to run as normal.

Network Rail said that it has worked closely with heritage groups on the renovation project, which has seen corroded decorative steelwork reproduced and forged by specialist blacksmiths in the West Midlands.

Historic paint analysis has also been carried out so that the bridges are returned near to their original colour scheme.

Sarah Padmore, scheme project manager for Network Rail, said: “Work to expose the metal structures on the Victorian Great Ducie Street bridges has now been completed, giving our engineers access to carry out vital repairs needed to keep the bridges safe for decades to come.

“To safely complete this work, we need to close Victoria Street to vehicles for a further six days.

“We are really sorry for the inconvenience this will cause to people and would like to thank residents and motorists for their patience.”

Your Comments

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Tragically, the UKs rail corridors, and associated infrastructure, are like the veins in a long-term intravenous drug abuser’s arms – decrepit.

By Lloyd Hitchmough

Build it, spend now on maintenance, definitely noting on care, save short-term cost, boost shor-term profit, boost bonuses (Yoopiieee!), then repeatedly announce million pound so-called upgrade projects (oh what dynamic managerists we are), just to keep the run-down business chugging along. Sorry, but we are looking through you. Your managerist tricks are so transparent!

By James Yates

That should have read, nowt … on maintenance … and this managerist approach is used throughout commercial accounting. It must be one of the most inefficient and uneconomic methods of managing any business, but generates extra short-term value extraction.

By James Yates

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