Hi,
I have so far spoken to EA, Flood Resilience and now you, as it seems that the EA do not want to take responsibility for the backing up of debris against the upside span of the Rea bridge.
There is a huge amount of debris which needs removing when conditions allow. There also maybe some damage to the bridge as the picture shows, this maybe old and be non-structural, but as we are no experts this needs looking at. Of concern is that a brick has dropped out of the arch which I had not noted before.
There is also still the damage to the same bridge from Storm Babette in October 23 which had been reported by myself directly after the Storm and is also on FixMyStreet. More recently a red lorry or something has struck the corner of the bridge causing some damage to the Parapet that was repaired before in 2011, and a stone cover has been stolen from one of the overflow drains on the upstream side.
I would be grateful for your early actions.
Dear Gavin,
Thank you for your enquiry, which I have also received through our resilience officer and Customer Service Centre.
I have instructed our Term Maintenance Contractor Kier to remove the build-up of trees and debris on and urgent basis. The work is planned for this Friday 05th January 2024 under an emergency road closure. Unfortunately, there will be some disruption to the local community, for which we apologise in advance.
Other minor repair works to the bridge that are still to be undertaken following Storm Babet are in our forward programme to be repaired but are of a lower priority.
Our Engineering Consultant WSP, will be carrying out a special inspection of the structure once the trees and debris have been removed and current water levels recede.
I shall also be discussing with colleagues in our Flood Water Management team to discuss the issues with the EA and likely solutions to assist in the prevention of this reoccurrence during flooding events.
Regards