Delight as new Eastham Bridge opens a year after collapse - with video and pictures
[gallery] The last time minibus driver Derek Trow went to cross the River Teme at on the Shropshire border, the bridge collapsed in front of him.
But one year on he has completed his journey - without incident - as a brand new Eastham Bridge opened to traffic for the first time yesterday.
Mr Trow's minibus was the first vehicle to cross the newly-constructed bridge to the village of Eastham, near Tenbury Wells, after seven months of frenzied building work.
It completed the trip to rounds of applause from gathered villagers, dignitaries and workmen.
But his crossing was not just ceremonial – once again he was on the school run from Lindridge St Lawrence Primary School, with a bus load of pupils, just like the day in May last year that the previous 18th century bridge dramatically crumbled as the bus went to cross it.
Pulling up after dropping off some of his passengers on the Eastham side of the bridge, surrounded by clapping onlookers, he said: "It's just great to get back to the old route, and to know I haven't got that awful 10-mile diversion every single day any more.
"It has been bad enough for us but the people who live on the other side, they were just stranded. It was weird coming across it again. It is just a couple of weeks short of a year since I last did.
Second across the bridge, going in the other direction, was a Tenbury Transport Trust community minibus carrying some of the oldest residents of the village, and the youngest, nine-week-old Caytlin Wyse.
The bridge is not quite finished yet, and will be operating with three-way traffic lights for some time, Worcestershire County Council's head of highways Jon Fraser said.
He said: "I'm delighted to get to this milestone stage in the project, but there's still a lot of work to do in terms of cladding the bridge and taking away the temporary supports. We'll be continuing to work until probably around the summer."
The new bridge has been built to incorporate what little remains of the previous bridge but is a new, modern structure which has as its base two huge steel beams.
There was not enough left of the previous bridge to consider rebuilding it as it was. The cause of the collapse was thought to have been due to fast-flowing water eroding sediment around the foundations of the structure, rather than structural problems with the stonework itself.
