Bidston Moss Viaduct gets £70million repair go-ahead

Mar 24 2010 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

Key Wirral route gets final approval for £70m repairs

THE £70m strengthening work on a key Wirral road link has been given final approval by transport minister Paul Clark.

The work on the Bidston Moss Viaduct will allow heavier vehicles to be able to use all lanes on the route from the M53 motorway to the Kingsway tunnel.

Mr Clark said on Monday this announcement was the “final approval” for the scheme announced by his predecessor, Rosie Winterton, in September, 2008.

Mr Clark said the scheme – which has been started – had previously only received conditional approval and permissions for the scheme had been done in stages to “make sure there were no nasty shocks”.

He said the recent asbestos scare at the site had been “handled in the right way” and the material had now been removed allowing work to continue.

Mr Clark said the structural work should be completed “by the end of next year”.

He said: “ I welcome this partnership work between my department, local authorities and the Highways Agency.”

Strengthening works to the Bidston Moss Viaduct will mean the current weight limit restricting vehicles using the outside lane of the central structure to 3.5 tonnes will be lifted.

The aim is to improve traffic flow across the structure which carries around 63,000 vehicles a day, including approximately 5,000 HGVs.

The scheme has been jointly developed by Wirral Council, Merseytravel and the Highways Agency.

Already £20m has been spent on the preparatory works and the next step will be for the main work to start on site in May.

Design and preparatory site work started at the beginning of 2009 and the strengthening work will be completed by spring, 2012.

Wirral Council and Merseytravel are contributing up to £3.6m, with the balance coming from the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency.

Much of the work is under the bridge to minimise traffic disruption.