Vale Royal Swing Bridge repair

THE 150 years old swing foot bridge over Vale Royal Locks on the Weaver has been removed for repairs.

The Grade II listed bridge has now been removed by Canal & River Trust and transported on a low loader to Doncaster for major restoration.

Temporary footbridge

In place of the metal swing bridge there will be a temporary footbridge, allowing walkers to continue to cross the locks as part of a popular river walk, South of Northwich. The pictures shows the bridge loaded into the barge for transport down river to be unloaded onto a low loader.

The project has been funded jointly by the Trust and the National Lottery's Heritage Lottery Fund through The Saltscape Landscape Partnership.

Float it down river

David Thorne, Project Manager with the Canal & River Trust, worked with contractors, Kier, to crane out the bridge onto a barge using a bespoke gantry, float it 100 metres down river and then crane it from the river on to a low loader by the Blue Bridge for the start of its road journey to a fabrication yard in Doncaster.

The work will involve cleaning, shot-blasting and priming to prevent further corrosion, before the bridge is put into storage for 12 months. The second phase of the renovation works, depending on available funds, would be in spring 2017 and include extensive repairs and re-painting of the structure.

We are told that it had originally been planned to put the bridge back earlier, but the Trust have had to divert funds this year to cover the extensive damage to the canals caused by the recent floods.