Bickleigh Bridge: driver misjudged approach

Road shut for another fortnight

The double-height kerb stones installed on the historic Bickleigh Bridge just last month helped to prevent a much worse event when an articulated lorry collided with the wall last week, Devon’s chief bridge engineer has said.

Engineers were called early on Tuesday to the A396 Mid Devon road after the lorry hit the wall on the downstream side of the listed bridge. The road is set to be closed for a further fortnight.

Devon County Council’s chief bridge engineer Kevin Dentith said that it appears the driver misjudged his approach to the narrow bridge, but that further mitigations to prevent the knocks, such as traffic lights at either side, would not have prevented the incident

“Whilst the cab got onto the bridge without causing any damage, the driver reversed off the bridge and in doing so caught the downstream parapet wall,” Mr Dentith said.

“The main arches are very strong, capable of taking well in excess of the 40 tonne vehicles permitted on the highway, a testament to the original builders.

“Whilst the damage looks dramatic it is not serious in terms of the overall integrity of the bridge and will be returned to full use as quickly as possible. We have assessed the structure, there is no damage to the main load bearing arch and we are well underway with the repairs.

“Stone has been recovered from the river and is now being cleaned ready for use in the rebuild. A scaffold was in place within 24 hours, which will be used by our experienced masons to reconstruct the wall. As with all historic bridges we use lime mortar, which takes longer to set than cement but this shouldn’t delay the project by too much.”

The approach to the bridge, which was lined with new kerb stones some years ago, has improved vehicles’ access onto the bridge, but larger trucks and lorries have occasionally bumped up the kerb and scraped the walls.

As a result, double-height kerb stones, used commonly in situations like this, were introduced this year to stop that, and have been very effective.

Mr Dentith added: “This lorry’s tyre marks on the kerb stones, with no damage to the parapet wall on the upstream side of the bridge, shows that the kerbs helped in this situation. They possibly prevented an even worse event.

“We anticipate repairs will take between two and three weeks. We have made a good start, but with lime mortar the work is rather weather dependent. In the meantime, there is a diversion while the bridge is closed. We apologise for any inconvenience.”

Cllr Richard Chesterton, Devon County Councillor for Tiverton West, added: “The A396 and Bickleigh Bridge provide an important link from Tiverton to Exeter, I’m pleased that the bridge will be mended as quickly as is possible. As a newly elected member I look forward to working with officers to make sure that all possible solutions that would protect this historic bridge in the future are considered and traffic is kept moving.”

The bridge, originally built in the late 16th century, straddles the River Exe and sits in the village of Bickleigh on the A396 road from Tiverton to Exeter. It was largely rebuilt in 1809 after flood damage, but the bridge cannot accommodate more than a single lane of modern day traffic and has no pavement for pedestrians, which has led to the recurrent damage being caused to the historic bridge.

Bickleigh Bridge damage (Devon County Council)