By Safira Ali

Last updated at 15:10, Monday, 15 March 2010

Workington's new road bridge, reconnecting the split community, was lowered into place this weekend.

The temporary bridge

The two-lane bridge over the River Derwent, 200 metres upstream from the collapsed Northside Bridge, is progressing ahead of schedule and could be open in April.

The work over the weekend was a final push to get it over the river and it will then be jacked down to its permanent level.

Workers from Rugby-based construction company Morgan-Est began work on the bridge in February.

Meanwhile, Broughton Bridge will reopen today for the first time since the November floods. The bridge will initially reopen only to traffic travelling towards the village from the A66 to avoid congestion.

The Government’s transport advisers were in west Cumbria today to look at the impact of the floods on bridges and whether there are lessons to be learned nationally.

Members of the Transport Select Committee were arriving in the county today for a day-long visit, looking to see whether the bridges are ‘fit for purpose’ and how they coped with the floods that ravaged parts of Cockermouth, Workington and Keswick last November.

Twenty bridges were closed in the immediate aftermath of the floods and three road bridges swept away – Northside, Low Lorton and Little Braithwaite. Three footbridges – Navvies, Memorial Gardens and Camerton – were also lost.

Workington’s Calva bridge remains closed following fears that it could collapse because of structural damage. The floods brought the problems with some of the bridges to the attention of the committee and, following their visit today, they will meet in the House of Commons on Wednesday to discuss their initial findings.

The collapse of Northside Bridge prompted the county council to announce checks of 1,800 bridges across the county but no structural integrity issues have so far been raised. Full structural inspections are carried out every two years and the last one on Northside – in July 2008 – deemed it to be structurally sound.

A county council spokesman said they were looking at how a similar situation could be avoided in the future and said the issue with bridges was not simply the volume of water, but debris gathering and putting further pressure on the bridges.

First published at 11:29, Monday, 15 March 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk