Shropshire road to shut overnight for new footbridge to be installed
A new footbridge across a brook in the Shropshire countryside will be lifted into position by crane, causing the overnight closure of a busy rural road.
The completed bridge will be transported to Wagbeach, near Minsterley, before being lifted into place over the brook, which runs next to the A488, on Thursday.
The road will be closed overnight while the work is carried out. It had initially been hoped the bridge would be put into place tomorrow, but due to unforeseen circumstances the contractor, Beaver Bridges of Leebotwood, has been delayed by two days.
The installation of the new footbridge is a follow-up to work which was carried out in 2013 to strengthen the edge of the A488 following severe flood damage.
The work involved locally realigning the brook away from the road, and then building a new stone boulder embankment between it and the road.
It will be one of a number of road closures in the region over the coming week.
There will be two overnight closures on the A5 in the north west of the county, while the A483 was shut between Newtown and Welshpool for 24 hours over the weekend after cracks appeared in a temporary section of the road, causing disruption for bank holiday traffic.
Although building the stone boulder embankment solution was carried out without a road closure, the footbridge was no longer long enough, so had to be replaced.
Speaking about the A488 closure, Councillor Claire Wild, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for bridge maintenance, said: "It is appreciated that closing the A488 road will cause inconvenience, and it is to minimise this that the bridge lift has been programmed to be carried out overnight."
The new footbridge will be built elsewhere before being transported to site late on Thursday.
The road will be closed between 9pm on Thursday and 7am on Friday.
When the road is closed, it is proposed to divert traffic via Brockton, Chirbury, Church Stoke and Lydham.
Councillor Wild added that because it will be unsafe to crane the bridge into place if it is very windy, it is possible that the weather will cause the bridge lift to be postponed for a day or two at short notice.
The A5 will be closed eastbound from the Wolfshead island to the Felton Butler island at Nesscliffe from Monday to Friday between 8pm and 6am, with a diversion signposted.
It will also be closed between Montford Lane and the Wolfshead Island from Monday until June 13 between 8pm and 6am.
