Britain’s bridges ‘on the road to ruin’

Local authorities are failing to spend enough on maintaining bridges on local roads to keep them open to heavy trucks, and £3.9 billion investment is required to restore them to standard – according to motoring charity RAC Foundation.

The charity’s research identified 3,203 bridges under local authority control that are not strong enough to support 44-tonne trucks.

Many of these structures have weight restrictions and others are “being monitored” or are under a policy of “managed decline”. They represent over four per cent of the 72,000 bridges in the nation’s local road network. Some were not built to a high enough standard in the first place, and others are wearing out.

Slough has the worst record of all Britain’s local authorities, with 47 per cent of its bridges judged inadequate, but Devon has the highest number of out-of-repair bridges at 249.

Across Britain, only 416 bridges are expected to be brought up to standard in the next five years.

A growing number of weight restrictions on bridges will increase truck mileage on local authority roads as alternative routes are sought, and impose extra wear on bridges that are currently up to standard.