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British Waterways To Rebuild Collapsed Historic Bridge

A £250,000 restoration project is now underway to rebuild a 200 year old bridge on the Trent & Mersey Canal after it partially collapsed in October 2008.

Bridge 20 near Stenson partially collapsed when a tractor and trailer passed over it causing sections of the bridge and the trailer’s load to fall into the canal.

The restoration of the listed structure is being managed by May Gurney, a national infrastructure services company, and will involve the use of traditional materials and repair techniques. A number of bricks from the collapsed sections were recovered and will be used in the repair along with locally sourced bricks which have been carefully selected to provide an exact match with the original brickwork. Bespoke sandstone copings have also been produced to rebuild the bridge parapet, ensuring the structure is sympathetically restored.

Lime mortar specialists will also be involved in the project following strict listed building consent guidelines and British Waterways’ own heritage standards. Lime mortar, which is quite different from many modern cement mixes, was originally used to build the bridge during the 1800’s due to its durable and permeable properties. The rebuilt bridge deck will also benefit from concrete reinforcements to increase load bearing capacity and help prevent a similar collapse from happening again in the future.

Darren Green, Central Shires waterway manager comments: “As the body responsible for protecting the rich heritage of the waterways network, this restoration is incredibly important to British Waterways. Great care is being taken to rebuild the bridge as sensitively as possible and to ensure that we can protect the bridge for another 200 years”.

May Gurney estimate that the rebuilding works will take approximately ten weeks. The repair will be carried out as part of the annual winter stoppage programme across the country. Eddie Quinn, manager for May Gurney adds: “We’re working closely with the team at British Waterways to ensure the bridge is restored as quickly as possible, while taking great care to respect the history and heritage of the original structure. This is an extremely interesting and challenging project and we look forward to re-opening the bridge in the coming months.”

Each year British Waterways carries out maintenance works to hundreds of structures including lock gates, bridges and aqueducts across the network of 2,200 miles of canals and rivers in the UK. Upon completion of the restoration a temporary footbridge, which has been constructed close to the bridge site to ensure walkers could continue using the canal, will be removed.