Bury Metro's Engineering Consultancy Service, forms part of the Environment & Development Services Department and manages the Structures Register for the Borough which contains over 500 structures. These structures consist of highway bridges, footbridges, subways, culverts, tunnels and retaining walls. Some of these structures are part of the public highway whilst others are in places such as parks and school grounds etc, but still owned by Bury MBC Departments. The remaining structures are privately owned but the Council, as Highway Authority, still have an interest in these structures from a public safety standpoint as they carry, for example, public highways or public rights of way. All motorway bridges and subways are the responsibility of the Highways Agency. Council Owned Structures
Council Owned Structures
| Structures |
Number Owned |
| Bridges |
91 |
| Culvets |
41 |
| Retaining walls |
73 |
| Subways |
15 |
| Tunnels |
3 |
| Total |
223 |
Inspections
All structures on the register that are owned by Bury MBC are inspected every two years. This is known as a General Inspection. A more in-depth Principal Inspection is undertaken every six years. Whilst a General Inspection is mainly a visual inspection of the condition of the various parts of the bridge, a Principal Inspection may need access equipment to allow Engineers to be within touching distance of every single element making up the bridge. Using the information from a Principal Inspection, the structure can be assessed in order to recalculate its load carrying capacity.
Works
Most work undertaken over the last 10 years has been minor/major maintenance and strengthening. The most recent 'new' highway bridge to be built is the Pilkington Way crossing over the River Irwell in Radcliffe around 1990.
Minor Maintenance (repointing and resetting of brickwork and masonry, repainting, concrete repairs, removal of graffiti, repairing vandalism and damage due to vehicular impacts) has an annual budget of around £200k.
Major Maintenance (strengthening, waterproofing, parapet replacement/strengthening, major repainting, replacing expansion joints) has an annual budget of around £600k. This figure varies annually depending on how much money is forthcoming from the Department for Transport.
All bridgeworks are designed or co-ordinated by the Engineering Consultancy who also undertake all site supervision duties.
Service information leaflet
The service information leaflet for highway structures includes:
- A brief guide to highway structures
- What is a highway structure?
- Inspections and assessments
- Graffiti and vandalism
Download the service information leaflet for highway structures (2 page, 137kb, pdf)
How to contact us
Environment and Development Services, Engineering Consultancy Service, Lester House, 21 Broad Street, Bury, BL9 0AW
Phone: 0161 253 5795/5847
Fax: 0161 253 5794
E-mail: engcons@bury.gov.uk
On-line: Report a problem
