Bridge collapse: Temporary bridge move to be considered
There are hopes a temporary crossing may be put in place after the dramatic collapse of a historic bridge.
Investigations are still taking place into why Eastham bridge, at the village near Tenbury Wells, collapsed into the River Teme on Tuesday.
The 18th century bridge had had regular inspections and some maintenance work done in recent years.
Ken Pollock, who represents Tenbury on Worcestershire County Council, was at the scene yesterday after the bridge, which links the village of Eastham with the A443, was cordoned off by police, fire crews and council highways engineers.
An eyewitness said the arches collapsed as two mini buses came to cross it.
Councillor Pollack said he couldn't speculate on how long the bridge would take to fix, but it was likely to be months.
"It is Grade II listed so English Heritage may have some idea about how they would like it to be rebuilt," he said.
"In the interim I'm sure the engineers are thinking about putting a temporary bridge in, maybe a little downstream.
"We all know about temporary 'bailey bridges' – they can be installed fairly quickly and easily and stay in use for a long time.
"But that would be at some cost, of course, and we are always being told the county council has no money," he said.
He said the loss of the bridge was likely to swell traffic in Tenbury Wells as people from south of the Teme around Eastham would likely have to take a long diversion through the centre of the town to cross the river to the main A456 road.
"Why it happened I don't know yet," he said.
"We have regular inspections of the bridge."
