27.08.14
New £1.7m footbridge due at Stratford by end of 2014
Stratford-upon-Avon station will have its £1.7m footbridge by the end of the year, Network Rail has confirmed. Reports Abigail Lillicrap.
The new disabled access bridge, mostly funded by a grant from the Department of Transport’s ‘Access all areas’ scheme was due to be finished by summer 2014. The rest of the funds needed to complete the project, were contributed by Warwickshire County Council, Network Rail, and London Midland.
The delay has been caused by a technical issue over installation between Network Rail and Dyer and Butler Ltd, the building company.
Warwickshire County Council says that although there is no current sign of the bridge, it has already been erected off site. Network Rail has promised the local authority, however, that it will be completed by the end of 2014 and at the very latest 12 January 2015.
The new footbridge was planned in order to comply with the Equalities Act 2010, as previously passengers who could not use the footbridge had to cross at a ‘barrow crossing’ at the end of the platform.
The original bridge did not have the capacity to be updated to involve lifts and could not be replaced because of its historical structure. Therefore, the decision was made to create a new bridge with two lifts, eight metres down the platform from the original bridge.
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