Race on to get High Street ready for event after Bridgnorth gas leak drama
The race is on to get Bridgnorth High Street ready for one of Shropshire's biggest fundraising events after a gas leak caused drama and chaos earlier this week.
Hundreds of people are expected to turn out for the Bridgnorth Walk on Monday, just a week after the whole street was evacuated and cordoned off.
Gas and electrical repairs have been completed, but the path outside the former NatWest bank still remains blocked by barriers.
Deputy mayor of Bridgnorth, Councillor Ron Whittle, said: "It has caused some disruption to our High Street, but I think it has been fairly limited due to excellent work from the emergency services and a great response from the public.
"The bigger problem now is if they get everything finished in time for the Bridgnorth Walk on Monday, as the High Street will be absolutely heaving.
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"I believe most of the work is done but the street is still up at the moment so the work now will be relaying the path, filling the hole and laying all the tiles back in.
"Even if there is still a little barrier up I don't think it would have too much of an impact on the event, but even so it would be nice if it were to be all finished."
Western Power Distribution confirmed it sent a number of engineers out who completed repairs to electrical cabling on Tuesday and remained on site to conduct safety checks once the gas pipe had been fixed.
Workers identified a cable joint that had broken and caused wires to disconnect leading to a small explosion that initially ruptured the gas pipe and caused the disruption in the first place.
Cadent Gas said they left a team on site for more than 24 hours after they repaired the pipe to ensure gas levels remained safe.
Antony Quarrell, press officer for Cadent Gas, said: "To carry out the work on the gas pipe we only required two small excavations and these will be reinstated by our contractors.
"We completed our works to replace the gas service pipe on Tuesday, but maintained a presence on site until Wednesday to check gas readings and ensure it was safe before leaving the site."
