Work on the repairs of the bridge has been going well. Good weather has helped but there have been a few problems. This briefing is based on notes provided by Shropshire Council’s engineers Mouchel.
The stonework is being laid in lime mortar. Fortunately, the weather has been warm enough to allow this to set.
The stone recovered from the river has proved to be too weak to dress by hand. It is friable and crumbles. The stonemasons have been instructed to dress the stone using grinders and cutting tools, on condition that any cut faces are hidden from view when used in the repair. Even with this, the lack of large stone pieces makes it difficult to incorporate old stone into the repair of the spandrel. This means that new stone, supplied from Shropshire quarries at Bridgnorth and Myddle, will be used for most of the repair to the river side of the bridge.
Old stone, recovered from the damaged parapet and the river, will be used for the uncoursed parapets facing the road.
The stonemasons have requested to use hand-held mechanical breakers to remove the old cement repairs. Under the scheduled ancient monument consent granted for the repair works they should use hand tools but this impractical. A decision on the request is awaited from Shropshire Council’s conservation team.
Contractor Ringway will be picking up the new stone quoins from Shropshire Stone today ready for incorporating into the repair.
Meanwhile, HGVs are being diverted onto other roads. On Wednesday, an HGV carried beds tried to leave Ludlow via Sheet Road. Reaching the railway bridge, the driver realised the vehicle exceeded the height limit. In one of those ironic moments, when the truck reversed it knocked down the sign warning of a low bridge ahead. Fortunately, there was witness, so we can land this bill on the driver.
Shropshire Council has created a web page with updates on the bridge repairs: http://bit.ly/ludfordbridge.
We are still hoping that the bridge will reopen before the Mayfair.
good news on the bridge repairs – are the insurers of the lorry which did the damage going to meet the bill for the repairs though? A worthwhile outcome from the whole episode might well be reconsideration of how traffic is directed through the town; we have streets and bridges designed for medieval towns rather than for the monster lorries which often try to make their way through – we still have vehicles using the through town route to save a couple of miles rather than using the bypass. Shrewsbury town is having a large amount of money spent on its ‘bicycle route’ our need seems considerably more worth while.
Good to have you back – hope things are looking brighter for you
Please,Andy, send news of YOU: many thanks for update regarding bridge. I agree with Joyce about rethinking routes into/out of Ludlow. Your map earlier was very helpful about the whole problem.
Best wishes.