Work to erect bailey bridge wins regional award

Shropshire County Council, their consultants Mouchel and their contractors Enterprise, were yesterday (14 May) crowned the winners of a special community benefit award at the Institution of Civil Engineers' West Midlands Region Awards in Birmingham 2008.

The award was made in recognition of the team’s efforts in erecting a bailey bridge over the River Corve in Ludlow, following the sudden collapse of the old Burway Bridge during the exceptionally heavy flooding last June.

Teams from the three organisations worked tirelessly to reconnect services carried by the bridge and reopen this strategic road, which carried around 9000 vehicles a day into the town, as soon as possible.

This task was made harder by a number of challenges such as the unstable nature of the site, the emergency nature of the work and ensuring that the services were diverted so they were not in the way when it came to building the eventual new bridge.

Due to all their hard work the road was re-opened to traffic in early August 2007, just six weeks and one day after the collapse of the old bridge.

John Everall, Shropshire County Council’s Cabinet member for environment and sustainability, said: “I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate the teams for their exceptional efforts during last year’s summer floods and their dedication to keep the county moving. This quick response could only be achieved through excellent project management and a commitment to team working by all.”

Further information

Burway Bridge was built in the 1930’s to carry a major route into Ludlow. In June 2007 exceptionally heavy flooding led to the sudden collapse of the bridge leaving a 16m wide breach in the road.

The bridge carried gas, electricity, water and BT services, most of which were severed or damaged. The flooding also scoured away the bed of the River Corve to a depth of 4m and caused widespread damage to many nearby residential and business properties.

15 May 2008