The cost of removing 1,600 tonnes of stone and concrete which National Highways had used to infill an historic railway bridge in Upper Eden has been revealed to be about £352,000 — which is about three times the £124,000 it cost to block it up.
In June 2021, Great Musgrave bridge, near Kirkby Stephen, was controversially infilled by National Highways under emergency permitted development rights, jeopardising longstanding plans of the Eden Valley and Stainmore railways to connect their operations by reinstating the track underneath it.
“A quite appalling waste of public funds, for which, those responsible within National Highways should be held to account,” was how Mike Thompson, project manager for the Kirkby Stephen-based Stainmore Railway Company, described to the Herald the eye-watering sum to undo the work which had been carried out.
Mr Thompson said: “Like any voluntary organisation, we’ve become skilled at raising modest sums and doing big things with them, by applying for grants and through fundraising ventures. But this kind of money would be transformational in our sector — it would have brought real progress with our future infrastructure works.
“There are groups elsewhere who face the prospect of having to remove infill from structures for rail and active travel projects they’ve been working towards for years.
“But how can they possibly afford it at this price? £352,000 to deal with a single blockage would push most proposals over the cliff of financial viability.
“The damage has been caused by National Highways through its blinkered approach to managing these assets and a lack of dialogue with stakeholders. They should have to put things right. In that respect, we’ve been very lucky.”
In addition to fighting National Highways over the Great Musgrave Bridge debacle, Mr Thompson said he along with Graeme Bickerdike, a member of the HRE Group of engineers, heritage campaigners and greenway developers, were also fighting National Highways on a much broader front over their attitude to the Historical Railways Estate.
Elsewhere in the country, National Highways has submitted an appeal against an enforcement notice requiring it to remove more than 1,000 tonnes of infill from a rare concrete bridge near King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
On October 2 last year, local councillors voted 14-0 to reject the company’s retrospective planning application for the scheme which had also been carried out under emergency permitted development rights and retained beyond the maximum 12-month period without authority. The structure’s future will now be determined through a public inquiry.
Hélène Rossiter, head of Historical Railways Estate at National Highways, said: “We are passionate about our role in protecting Britain’s railway heritage. Our priority is to maintain these old structures to prevent the risk of harm to the public.
“It cost £352,000 to safely and carefully remove the infill without damaging Great Musgrave bridge. This cost includes all elements of the project delivered at the site, including resurfacing the road and ensuring the site and compound were kept secure during the works.
“We’ll continue to inspect the bridge annually as we do with all our structures and deliver any future repairs that may be required to ensure the bridge can be used for many more years to come.
“We’ll keep listening and responding to local community needs to inform our decision on the management of the Historical Railways Estate.”
National Highways said they always knew removing the infill material was possible — but this was the first time they had done it — and they needed to ensure care was taken to protect the bridge and the environment when removing the foamed concrete and other materials that made up the infill.
Its contractor spent six months looking at various options to develop a detailed methodology which would prevent damage to the structure.
The method took longer and had a significant sub-contract element, where they worked with a range of experts to ensure work was delivered to the highest standards.
