Island Roads is adopting an innovative solution to reduce traffic disruption during work to strengthen a road bridge in the centre of Porchfield.

The bridge supporting the main road over Rodge Brook needs strengthening work to ensure it meets the standards required by the Highways PFI contract. Often, such strengthening work is undertaken by digging into the structure from the road surface meaning a full road closure is necessary.

However in the case of Porchfield, Island Roads has developed a scheme that means all the work can be done from underneath the structure.

While this means traffic is controlled by traffic signals, a full road closure has been avoided.

Island Roads structures project manager Jo Huett said: “In many cases such as the recent work to strengthen Clamerkin Bridge and Spicer’s Bridge at Newchurch, it was simply not feasible to do the work without such a closure.

“But we always look to keep disruption to a minimum and in the case of Porchfield we have been able to develop a scheme that allows us to work from underneath the bridge, which reduces the local inconvenience as a full road closure is not necessary.”

The project began last week and is scheduled to finish by 8th December.