Closed
Former railway bridge at risk of collapse
Sent to Oxfordshire County Council less than a minute later
Former railway bridge over B4508 east of Fernham. The face of the bridge abutment on the north side of the road is gradually moving away from the rest of the bridge structure. The mortar holding the blocks in place is also mostly missing. On 23 June I noticed that one of the blocks had fallen out of the bridge and onto the roadside. I am concerned that a large part of the bridge structure might fall into the road soon.
I reported this on 23 June. Oxfordshire Council referred it to National Highways as a former railway bridge. There was no update. Today the report was closed by Oxfordshire Council with a request for me to reopen if still a problem. While the fallen brick has been moved the overall state of the bridge has not changed. I am still concerned that the eroded mortar and the crack in the abutment mean that more parts of the structure could collapse. Nothing significant has changed since I reported this and no response was posted against the report. Closing the report without any response from the allocated agency seems to defeat the object of reporting the issue.
Council ref: ENQ23971507
Updates
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Thank you for your enquiry. This issue has been passed onto the relevant team for investigation.
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Dear Ewan,
My apologies, I appear not to have replied.
On receiving your enquiry I tasked our inspectors to carry out a call out inspection which was completed on 28 June 2023.
The inspector found a single piece of brick debris alongside the carriageway, with evidence of other minor spalling occurring. I attach a copy of his redacted report for your records.
The abutments are due a detailed exam now, once I receive the relevant report I will issue a minor works request to carry out repairs to the structure, or demolish.
Would you be able to assist me please and let me know if Oxfordshire have any plans or ambition to re-use the old railway line here for active travel. I would be happy to engage with your active travel team to discuss any ambitions for old railway lines across Oxfordshire which may include our structures.
We have requested comments from our Active Travel Hub re the question above.
Regards Ewan -
There are no plans to reopen this railway line.
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This structure is not OCC's I have emailed those responsible and got the following response.
My apologies, I appear not to have replied.
On receiving your enquiry I tasked our inspectors to carry out a call out inspection which was completed on 28 June 2023.
The inspector found a single piece of brick debris alongside the carriageway, with evidence of other minor spalling occurring. I attach a copy of his redacted report for your records.
The abutments are due a detailed exam now, once I receive the relevant report I will issue a minor works request to carry out repairs to the structure, or demolish.
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Thank you for your report. We have looked at it and found that it was a duplicate of an issue reported by another customer.
This report is now closed to updates. You can make a new report in the same location.