Slow down

Published: Saturday, 13 February 2010

British Waterways is asking speeding motorists to slow down when crossing the 200 years old hump-back bridges over its canals, as the cost of repairing damage it relates is costing over £2 millions a year.

It is blaming irresponsible drivers who cause the damage, diverting resources away from maintenance.

The majority of hump-back bridges were built in the 18th and 19th centuries to carry horse-drawn carts over canals, and BW estimates that at least two are struck every week by modern vehicles, which are much faster and often larger than the traffic that the engineers  originally designed them for.

Nigel Crowe, British Waterways' Head of Heritage, explains:

"Whenever you go over a hump-back bridge in Britain you are likely to be going over a canal. Often officially listed as being of special architectural or historical significance, these bridges have to be painstakingly repaired at considerable cost.

"We're working with the County Surveyors' Society and local authorities to improve signage and road markings, but frankly, if motorists just slowed down a bit and took more care and attention then we'd not be defacing our heritage in this way on a day-to-day basis."

Humpback bridges were built using traditional materials such as lime mortar and locally sourced stone or brick. Damaged sections of bridges are replaced with like-for-like materials, using skills passed down over many generations, a spokesman relates.

In practice, having hit the bridge, most drivers leave the scene without reporting the accident meaning that British Waterways cannot recoup the cost of the damage from the driver's insurance company, with Nigel concluding:

"Every inconsiderate driver who ‘hits and runs' in this way is costing Britain's valuable heritage dear."