Council ponders £1 million bridge maintenance programme

Council leaders will decide over the coming weeks whether to go ahead with a million pound project to repaint a key road bridge close to West Norfolk’s border with Lincolnshire.

Motorists on the A17 could be facing extensive delays if Lincolnshire County Council’s executive agrees to go ahead with the work on Cross Keys Bridge at Sutton Bridge.

The issue will be debated at a committee session next week, with a decision expected from senior figures early next month.

The work is estimated to cost between £1million and £1.5million, which is funded by Department of Transport grant, and could take place next year.

Long queues of traffic were seen around Sutton Bridge in 2019 when the last maintenance project was undertaken on the bridge.

A council report said paint system protects the structural steel from corrosion.

It said: “Action taken now will retain and improve the protection offered against corrosion.

“It should be noted that, whilst it is deteriorating, not all the existing paint system has failed.

“There are significant areas of the current paint system which appear to have survived in reasonable condition since the last major re-painting operation.

“Corrosion and failure of the paint system is most noticeable at connections between members and inaccessible parts of the structure.”

The council has commissioned a specialist survey into the integrity of the current system.

It states: “It is felt that whilst this approach does not provide a full renewal of the paint system, it offers an appropriate balance between full blast cleaning and repainting of the whole bridge and good value for money.”

If the work goes ahead, two-way temporary signal control will be introduced on the bridge.

The project is set to be discussed at a meeting of Lincolnshire County Council’s Highways and Transport scrutiny committee next Monday, June 28.

It is then due to be examined by the authority’s ruling executive when it next meets on July 6.