Post by Historic Docks on Apr 7, 2009 23:35:06 GMT
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/04/02/bridge-replacement-could-shut-dock-road-until-2011-100252-23295226/
Bridge replacement could shut Dock Road until 2011
Apr 2 2009 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo
A SECTION of Liverpool’s dock road could be shut until November 2010 after the iron bascule bridge at Stanley Dock was condemned.
Docks owner Peel Holdings shut the key route between Paisley Street and Blackstone Street for a year last May to repair the badly corroded bridge, which dates back to the 1930s.
The closure hit motorists who used Regent Road as an alternative rush hour route to the parallel Great Homer Street and Derby Road.
Peel planned to complete the work in time to re-open the route – which lies within the Stanley Dock conservation area and Liverpool’s World Heritage site – next month.
But Peel Holdings development surveyor Ian Pollitt revealed that it became apparent the upper structure, which works the swing bridge, was too badly damaged to be repaired and needed to be removed.
So now the company is to submit a planning application to Liverpool council to demolish and remove the bridge and replace it with a new bridge, which Mr Pollitt said will be built elsewhere and then transported to the dock road site.
He said: “Because it is in a conservation area we have to go through a full planning application.”
A council spokesman confirmed that Peel have applied for an 18-month extension to the road closure, starting from next month when the road should have re-opened.
But Mr Pollitt said the company hopes to re-open the link much quicker: He said: “I would like to think we could take it (the bridge) out in three months and then look at installing a new fixed bridge by March next year, but we would like to think it would be sooner than that.”
However, he admitted that the timetable to install the new bridge and re-open the link could be affected by Peel’s existing plans to develop its £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme in the same Stanley Dock area.
“There could be a tram link over the bridge, so we have to take this into account.”
He said the cost of demolishing, removing and replacing the bridge will be “substantial” but Peel has already budgeted for it.
And he revealed that once the new fixed crossing is in place Peel hopes to hand the bridge over to the city.
A council spokesman said the extended closure was unavoidable: “It is not safe to allow traffic to go over it.”
A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight.
Bridge replacement could shut Dock Road until 2011
Apr 2 2009 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Echo
A SECTION of Liverpool’s dock road could be shut until November 2010 after the iron bascule bridge at Stanley Dock was condemned.
Docks owner Peel Holdings shut the key route between Paisley Street and Blackstone Street for a year last May to repair the badly corroded bridge, which dates back to the 1930s.
The closure hit motorists who used Regent Road as an alternative rush hour route to the parallel Great Homer Street and Derby Road.
Peel planned to complete the work in time to re-open the route – which lies within the Stanley Dock conservation area and Liverpool’s World Heritage site – next month.
But Peel Holdings development surveyor Ian Pollitt revealed that it became apparent the upper structure, which works the swing bridge, was too badly damaged to be repaired and needed to be removed.
So now the company is to submit a planning application to Liverpool council to demolish and remove the bridge and replace it with a new bridge, which Mr Pollitt said will be built elsewhere and then transported to the dock road site.
He said: “Because it is in a conservation area we have to go through a full planning application.”
A council spokesman confirmed that Peel have applied for an 18-month extension to the road closure, starting from next month when the road should have re-opened.
But Mr Pollitt said the company hopes to re-open the link much quicker: He said: “I would like to think we could take it (the bridge) out in three months and then look at installing a new fixed bridge by March next year, but we would like to think it would be sooner than that.”
However, he admitted that the timetable to install the new bridge and re-open the link could be affected by Peel’s existing plans to develop its £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme in the same Stanley Dock area.
“There could be a tram link over the bridge, so we have to take this into account.”
He said the cost of demolishing, removing and replacing the bridge will be “substantial” but Peel has already budgeted for it.
And he revealed that once the new fixed crossing is in place Peel hopes to hand the bridge over to the city.
A council spokesman said the extended closure was unavoidable: “It is not safe to allow traffic to go over it.”
A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight.