Bridges

We are the Highway Authority and the Bridge Authority for the bridges we own.

There are other bridge owners and authorities. The largest are:

• Highways England (trunk roads and motorway)
• Network Rail (railways)
• The Environment Agency (main rivers)
• Canal and River Trust (canals and rivers)

For bridges over disused railways, please contact:

• tel: 0300 123 5000
• email: info@highwaysengland.co.uk

Highways England Historical Railways Estate, Hudson House, Toft Green, York YO1 6HP.

Bridges usually belong to whichever organisation needed them in the first place. If the organisation’s closed down, the replacement organisation will normally own the bridge. They occasionally change hands, such as when responsibility for a route changes.

We inspect our bridges every two years or so, and draw up a maintenance plan. We investigate any damage, such as collisions, storm damage and so on, as soon as possible.

If you see someone damage a bridge in a vehicle, please report the vehicle’s details to us – it may make it possible for us to claim the cost of repairs.

Bridge strengthening

The maximum permitted weight of lorries is 44 tonnes.

All bridges have had to be assessed to see if they could cope with this increase safely.

Pending strengthening, public safety is maintained on those bridges assessed as weak by using temporary weight restrictions or other measures and restrictions.

Work carried out under the strengthening programme gives priority to principal road bridges.

For substandard bridges on the non-principal road network, decisions are made whether to permanently weight restrict rather than strengthen.

Each bridge is considered on its merits taking into account safety, economic and environmental factors.