Cumbria County Council has decided to keep Kingmoor Railway Bridge open during construction of the CNDR in spite of serious and expensive engineering challenges.
Kingmoor Railway Bridge crosses the tracks of the West Coast Mainline as well as local rail lines on the C1016 between Rockcliffe and Etterby on the route of the CNDR.
The existing bridge will need to be knocked down and rebuilt as part of the CNDR scheme if the county council gets the go-ahead from the Government expected later this week.
The easiest and cheapest way of rebuilding the bridge would be to close it and part of the C1016 for the duration of the work which could last up to two years - doing the work this way would save at least £500,000.
But cabinet today decided that the inconvenience caused to communities by closing the road was too great and voted instead to find an engineering solution which will keep closures to a minimum.
Keeping the 131metre long bridge open during rebuilding presents a significant engineering challenge because half of the existing bridge will have to be kept open to traffic while the other half is demolished and rebuilt. Then the old half will be knocked down and the second half of the new bridge constructed. All this will have to happen in the limited windows of opportunity available to work safely over the busy West Coast Mainline.
Following consultations and a public meeting with the communities of the Cargo, Rockcliffe and Stainton areas, cabinet agreed that, although detailed discussions about work on the bridge will be ongoing, particularly with Network Rail, bidders for the CNDR contract will be expected to keep bridge closures to a minimum during the two-year construction period for the new road.
Jack Richardson, cabinet member for Client Services, said: "We are putting the interests of people in this area ahead of cold hard cash. It may cost an extra half a million pounds to do it this way, but having looked at the situation and listened to the concerns of the communities who would have been disadvantaged and inconvenienced by a long-lasting blanket closure of the bridge, we decided their interests had to come first."
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