Project Detail

Investigation work had shown that rainwater was not draining away properly and was seeping into the historic fabric of the bridge. When the bridge was originally built, a lime-based mortar was used which was softer than the surrounding sandstone. The soft mortar was designed to allow water to escape and slowly erode in the process. Unfortunately, previous repairs had used a hard cement-based mortar which had forced water into the stone blocks, eroding the stone instead of the mortar.

As the river has flooded more over the years the masonry has stayed wet for longer, and the flood waters also carry a great deal of debris such as fallen branches and trees which rub against and damage parts of the bridge.

Due to access being very difficult, we decided that the best course of action to repair the stone would be to use rope access to allow our team to access all the points safely and carry out the works required. This also meant that we were able to save the client money by removing the need to use scaffolding.

We had to work as efficiently as possible as the bridge needed to be closed to traffic in order to carry out the works safely, which we were able to do.