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Wednesday 5 Sep 2007

BOOTH STREET, STOCKPORT REOPENS

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Booth Street, Stockport will reopen this weekend following completion of a £1 million scheme by Network Rail to bring it up to modern-day standards. The road has been closed since the end of August and a local diversion put in place to allow Network Rail to demolish the bridge deck and lay a new, stronger concrete deck in its place. The road should have opened a month ago but a combination of bad weather and the decision to completely resurface the entire road and not just the section over the bridge, delayed the project. Network Rail’s territory civil engineer Tony Wilcock explained: “The work was deliberately planned to take place during the summer because it would cause less disruption to traffic, and because we could take advantage of the summer weather. “However, we all know what a wet summer it has been and the one thing you can’t do is waterproof a bridge when it is pouring with rain." In discussions with Stockport Council, it was also decided that it would make sense to resurface the entire length of Booth Street, rather than do the part over the bridge and come back at a later date to resurface the rest of the road. Councillor David White, Executive Member for Transportation, said: "Work to strengthen Booth Street bridge has gone well since Network Rail started on site in May. We were also able to take advantage of the closure to undertake resurfacing and general maintenance work on site. The road is now open to traffic and I'd like to thank everyone for their patience during this important work." The work was necessary as part of a scheme to look at 10,000 road-over-rail bridges nationwide, now that 40 and 44 tonne lorries are permitted on Britain's roads under EU regulations. The assessment of Booth Street bridge indicated that although the main structure was sound, there were weaknesses in the edges of the bridge that needed to be brought up to current standards.