Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

Workington Bridge repair

 Workington Bridge was severely damaged in the November 2009 Cumbria floods. The southern pier of the bridge was undermined causing the deck to sink, twist and crack.

Together Connect Roads and Balfour Beatty Regional Civil Engineering's design and construction team made a huge effort to save this historic grade II listed bridge. At the outset it had a 50:50 chance of saving the structure but the decision was taken with stakeholders to attempt to rescue the bridge. 

The technical works initially involved stabilising the undermined pier by inserting temporary supports, where some 500 tonnes of load was taken on temporary steel beams. This delicate operation required state of the art monitoring to be carried out, to ensure that safety and the overall integrity of the structure was not compromised.

Once this stage had been successfully completed, a new concrete foundation and core to the pier could be constructed. This was refaced in local sandstone to match the original structure, before a series of piles were drilled through the deck and into the underlying bedrock to further strengthen the structure. The masonry arches, walls and deck surfacing were then reinstated to complete the works and retain the original appearance of the bridge.

The repair of Workington Bridge was a truly unique engineering feat. A masonry arch bridge repair on this scale and complexity had never been attempted before in the UK and the fact that it stands today, fully operational, is testament to the skill and ability of all those involved.

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