Call for probe into bridge repairs delay rejected

Councillor Steve Holland said businesses needed to know what was happening with the repairs

Calls for an investigation into why repairs to a landmark bridge in North East Lincolnshire were taking so long have been rejected by a council.

The Grade II-listed Corporation Road Bridge in Grimsby has been closed to vehicles since February.

Its reopening, originally due to take place this month, was delayed indefinitely in October after the structure was found to be in a worse state than expected.

Independent councillors have called for the delay to be scrutinised, but North East Lincolnshire Council said it had "been upfront" about the situation.

The bridge, which opened in 1925, spans the River Freshney and is a main route into Grimsby town centre.

The £5m restoration began in February and was expected to have been completed by the end of the year.

However, grit-blasting work had uncovered "significant areas of rusting and corrosion", the council revealed two months ago.

The bridge's footpath would also be closed for safety reasons on five dates next month as works progressed, the authority announced.

The closures, from 09:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT on 4, 9, 17, 23 and 30 January, were required while works took place next to public areas, a spokesperson said.

Contractors who grit-blasted the bridge found "significant corrosion" on the structure

Councillors from the Independents for North East Lincolnshire group have said they wanted an investigation into the delays to be carried out.

Councillors Steve Holland and Lyndsey Downes had "called in" the repairs project for examination by the Conservative-led authority's economy scrutiny panel.

Mr Holland told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The communication’s been poor and we still don’t know when the bridge is going to reopen."

Businesses needed to know what was happening, he added.

Mr Holland claimed the bridge's deterioration was not the only issue and the project was “way behind on a number of fronts”.

Responding, Conservative councillor Oliver Freeston, chair of the economy scrutiny panel, said members were not qualified engineers so would not be able to examine the technical side of such projects. 

However, he said they would continue to hold officers to account "to gain assurance that projects are being managed effectively and efficiently".

'Deteriorated condition'

A spokesperson for North East Lincolnshire Council said the authority's process for such schemes already included "regular meetings to review and challenge progress, with opportunities to learn lessons, where identified".

The spokesperson said a revised reopening date could only be agreed once the bridge’s true condition was known.

Feedback from surveys of the bridge was due in late January 2024, when a revised timescale of works would be decided, they said.

The spokesperson added: "We have been upfront that Corporation Bridge has been found to be in a much more deteriorated condition than initially believed and have explained the reasons for this."

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, X, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].