Residents are reminded that work to refurbish two footbridges over the railway line between Lake and Shanklin gets underway next week (Jan 12).
The footbridges at Skew Bridge and Alresford Road are both being refurbished to ensure they are at the standards required by the Highways PFI contract.
Skew Bridge is being taken down in sections and stripped back and repainted off-site before being re-assembled and brought back into use. The deck plates – the footway surface – will be replaced as part of the work.
Because there is more available space at its location, the work to Alresford Bridge is being done with the structure in situ. Again, the bridge will be stripped back, repainted and any necessary repairs to the steel structure and concrete deck undertaken.
To allow the removal of Skew Bridge, there will be a road closure on the main Shanklin to Lake road in place between 9am and 5pm on Wednesday (Jan 13). There will be a further day closure around five weeks later when the structure is re-assembled on site.
Work on Alresford footbridge will last up to eight weeks. As the work is being done while the bridge is in situ, no road closure is necessary. However, a minibus will be provided at the beginning and end of the school day to serve Gatten and Lake Primary. Because of the current lockdown, the impact of this footbridge work will naturally be reduced and the provision of this service will be kept under review in consultation with the school.
At Skew, pedestrians will be able to cross the railway line via the level crossing during the road closure (Jan 13) and afterwards via temporary arrangements that will see a lane closure and traffic signals in place.
The work to both bridges has been timed to coincide with improvement work being carried out by IslandLine during which trains were not running.
Jason Boulter, Island Roads project manager, said: “We have taken steps to maintain pedestrian access as far as possible so hopefully disruption will be minimal.
“We would like to thank the local community, particularly Gatten and Lake Primary, for their co-operation so far and we hope that any short-term inconvenience will be offset by the long term benefits the refurbishment of these two busy footbridges will bring.”