THE Stockton Heath swing bridge stuck again last night, the latest in a growing list of recent incidents involving the ageing structures spanning the Manchester Ship Canal.
Traffic again came to a standstill in the village, although pedestrians and cyclists were still able to cross the London Road bridge.
According to local sources, the bridge came to a grinding halt. Then the operator went down below and cleared the obstruction then brought the bridge in line with the road but the barriers wouldn’t raise because the warning light for the lock wasn’t working!
The increasing number of problems with the bridges which are in urgent need of maintenance prompted one villager to joke, “I think we need to start letting people know when the bridges aren’t stuck atm 🤷🏽♂️🙄”
The bridge was set to close for nine months for long overdue maintenance work by owners Peel but this has been delayed after Warrington Borough Council refused to pay towards the costs of road closures.
Warrington South MP Andy Carter has urged both parties to hold further talks to resolve the issue and is also set to have talks with Peel directly.
Engineers attended at the bridge last night to re-open it.
The Stockton Heath Bridge stuck
Swingbridge Alert
A50 Knutsford Road Swingbridge will close to traffic in about 25 minutes, then A49 London Road and A5060 Chester Road bridges.
This email was sent on April 24, 2023 at 09:28PM
— Traffic Warrington (@trafficwarr) April 24, 2023
3 Comments
Why don’t WBC take them on, refurb both bridges and charge Peel a rediculous price to open them everytime a boat has to come through
my foreman years ago wanted to go along and weld them so they couldn’t open.
I believe this evening PEEL have announced the bridges will be manually operating the opening and closing of the bridges like they used to in previous years .
A trusted and reliable method .