CALDERDALE Council has released figures giving Canal & River Trust (CaRT) cost estimates for repairing waterways infrastructure in its area.
The council state that the Trust will incur costs of £11.5m to repair the damage to waterway structures caused by the recent flooding, with £5m of that sum needed to repair the Elland Road Bridge.
The costs
Figures provided by the council given to CaRT as follows:
Rochdale Canal, Between Locks 16 &17, Todmorden. Cost 700k
Rochdale Canal, Between locks 15 &16, east of Todmorden Cost 500k
Rochdale Canal, Between locks 11 &12, Hebden Bridge Cost 200k
Rochdale Canal, Between locks 11 &12, Hebden Bridge Cost 250k
Rochdale Canal, Between Noon Hill & Sowerby Bridge Cost 350k
Rochdale Canal, Between Noon Hill & Sowerby Bridge Cost 300k
Rochdale Canal, near Lock32, Bottomley Cost 200k
Calder and Hebble Navigation Salterhebble locks Cost 400k
Calder and Hebble Navigation. Elland public road bridge. (Elland bridge cost only) 5000k
Calder and Hebble Navigation Elland Lock and lock lobby building Cost 100k
Calder and Hebble Navigation Park Nook lock and towpath to Brook foot lock. Cost 400k
Calder and Hebble Navigation Embankment 4 includes outlet weir between Crowther bridge and Brookfoot. Cost 250k
Calder and Hebble Navigation Ganny Lock. Cost 100k
Calder and Hebble Navigation Lock 15 approach wall and flood defence. Cost 250k
Other costs
Other CaRT costs in the Calderdale area:
Additional asset inspections Cost 100k
Dredging due to inflows Cost 2000k
Additional culvert cleaning Cost 400k
TOTAL—£11.5m
These costs have yet to be confirmed by the Trust and do not include its costs outside the Calderdale area.
Elland Road Bridge
It is understood that it will take up to a year to rebuild the Grade II listed Elland Road Bridge, so some measures are being put in place to improve pedestrian access.
CaRT's contractor, Kier, is already in the process of building a temporary 30m footbridge between Park Road and Elland Bridge Road. The 1.5m wide footbridge will provide an important link for local people between Park Road and Elland Bridge Road. The bridge, which will be lit at night, replaces a previous bridge installed across Elland Lock soon after the floods. The council found the previous structure too narrow.
A second temporary crossing will be installed to carry important services across the Calder and Hebble.
Government funding
It appears that the cost of £5m to repair the Elland Road Bridge shown above does not include the temporary footbridge and other temporary crossing which will cost a further £500,000. Thankfully, Ministerial Flood Recovery Envoy for Yorkshire Robert Goodwill has just announced up to £5m of government funding to rebuild the bridge and a further £500,000 to construct the temporary footbridge and services crossing.
However, this still means that CaRT have to find over £5m to repair other flood damage in the Calderdale area alone.