Greyhound Bridge Reopening Pushed Back

21 May 2018, 10:00 | Updated: 21 May 2018, 10:03

Lancaster's Greyhound Bridge now won't reopen to traffic until mid-September.

It had been hoped the century-old crossing would be ready in August.

But that's been pushed back due to the scale of repairs needed after more damage was found.

The £4million job started in January and is being done so it's safe for lorries to cross.

County Councillor Keith Iddon, Lancashire County Council cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "We're sorry the repairs to the Greyhound Bridge will take longer than had originally been planned, which is due to the condition of the reinforced concrete deck being worse than investigations had shown, and means more of these sections need to be replaced.

"We're working closely with the contractor to minimise the impact on the timescales. For example we've introduced night-time working to remove the debris of the old concrete and ensure the work being done during the day can progress as quickly as possible.

"This is a once-in-a-generation maintenance scheme, which means that once complete it will be decades before work to the bridge on this scale is needed again. We're sorry for the added inconvenience, but hope people will understand that it is absolutely necessary to do this extra work to the bridge to maintain its strength.

"We'll also be working with the contractor to find any opportunities to make up time and reopen the bridge as soon as we can."

The work has been planned so that, once the most significant repairs are complete, the bridge is reopened with a minimum of 2 traffic lanes open, while less disruptive work such as repainting is carried out. It is now expected that the bridge will reopen to 2 lanes of traffic in mid-September, and scheduled to fully reopen to 3 lanes of traffic in winter 2018.