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Tuesday 18 Sep 2018

Faversham footbridge to get vital refurbishment ready for next Hop Festival

Region & Route:

| Southern

Plans are afoot to refurbish a railway bridge which will mean it can stay open for the masses during Faversham’s annual Hop Festival.

The footbridge has carried thousands of residents, churchgoers and passengers over the railway between Station Road and the church in St Catherine’s Drive, since the early 20th century.

But it has never been strong enough to cope with the tens of thousands of people who descend on the town for the street festival and has therefore been temporarily shut during each event.

David Line, works delivery manager for Network Rail, said: “This bridge has served as a vital right of way for this community for a century, initially starting out as a dedicated pathway for people to access the church.

“While it has safely carried people for decades, it was never intended to withstand the crowds who turnout each year for the Hop Festival.

“Therefore it needs an extensive makeover and significant improvements which mean it can stay open during the festival.”

Network Rail has been working with the local council to ensure the revamp of the listed structure is sympathetic, while ensuring it can be strengthened significantly to stay open during the town’s flagship event.

To minimise the impact on neighbours, contractors will remove the entire span of the bridge and complete the refurbishment off-site. But there will be a small construction compound on Station Road, where workers will operate during the day on other related works to the structure.

It means the bridge will be closed from 8 October until 28 January, while the work is carried out. People will be urged to use the alternative underpass by the station, between the Mall and Station Road. There will be no additional disruption to rail services as the work will take place during already planned maintenance.

David added: “We really do appreciate how much impact works like these can have on communities, so we’ve given a lot of thought as to how we can keep disruption to an absolute minimum.

“While the majority of the work will happen during weekdays, we will need to use a crane to lift out the bridge deck on Sunday, 14 October, because that’s the safest and quickest way to do this.

“We will then crane the refurbished deck back in on Sunday, 13 January. When the crane is operational we will need to close Station Road temporarily for safety reasons, however people will still be able to use the car park.”

The road closure will run from 6pm on Friday, 12 October, to midday on Monday, 15 October, and again when the bridge is craned back in, from 6pm on Friday, 11 January 2019, to midday on Monday, 14 January.

Network Rail is hosting a drop-in session on Monday, 17 September, from 4pm until 7pm, at The Schoolroom in St Catherine’s Church, Preston Lane, Faversham, ME13 8LF, where representatives from the project team will be on hand to answer questions.

If residents have any additional questions, call 03457 11 41 41.