UK city council to splurge £10m fixing massive bridge | UK | News
£10 million will be invested in a bridge in Scotland over the next six years. Aboyne Bridge in Aberdeenshire is to be repaired after the local authority’s district-wide road and infrastructure work program was laid before councilors earlier this month.
A report outlining the work outlined activities prioritized for action over the next 12 months despite an £83,000 cut to the infrastructure budget. The document included an updated bridge priority list, setting out the local authority’s plan to spend the huge sum on the Aboyne structure.
The report also provided updates on road maintenance, drainage and lighting, as well as flood risk and coast protection.
The 90-year-old Marr bridge was suddenly closed to vehicles in November 2023 due to concerns that the structure would not be able to withstand heavy traffic.
Plans to repair the bridge over the River Dee were taking shape two years after its sudden closure; Aberdeenshire Council stopped them in December after engineers discovered the bridge was in worse condition than they had previously believed.
Councilors voted in March this year to carry out retrofit works that would allow the facility to reopen with an 18-tonne weight limit.
Roads and Infrastructure Manager Philip McKay said recent investigations had “revealed some issues” and revealed the bridge was in worse condition than previously thought.
But going forward, money will be spent on design and enabling work to enable the Aboyne Bridge to be examined and eventually reopened by 2031.
This year alone, the council plans to allocate £525,000 towards the first steps towards bringing the bridge back into operation.
With the initial repair no longer possible, officers have three alternative options to consider.
The first is to fully strengthen and repair the crossing, which could cost up to £15 million.
Or they could install a temporary crossing, sometimes called a bailey bridge, next to the existing structure at a cost of up to £8 million.
Demolishing the existing bridge and building a new one could also be done, but this would result in a refund for the council of around £30 million.
