Media centre

Tuesday 8 Mar 2005

FACE PAINTING OUTSIDE PRESTON STATION

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The public face of Fishergate Bridge outside Preston station is to be re-painted by Network Rail in a 16-week programme costing £100k. The bridge parapets that face onto the roads and pavements, which are seen by passengers going to or from the station and motorists and pedestrians visiting the city centre, are being grit blasted to remove years of accumulated paint and grime. They will then be re-painted in traditional railway maroon, with the detail picked out in black. The bridge, which dates back to 1850, is a listed structure so Network Rail had to get listed building consent from the city council before it could carry out the work. The council also played an important part in helping to choose a colour scheme that suited the listed status of the bridge. Inevitably the work will cause some disruption to both road users and pedestrians so Network Rail has worked with the highway authority to agree a scheme for footpath closures and road restrictions that will cause the least disruption possible, which is why the work is taking four months to complete. A Network Rail spokesman said: “We could have done the job a lot quicker, but we would have needed road closures. Fishergate is such a busy road that the congestion that would create was simply not acceptable, so we have gone for a scheme that takes a bit longer but causes less of a traffic problem.” Work has already started and should be finished by early July.