Oxfordshire County Council has explained a "significant risk" of "corroding cables" as among the reasons it imposed a contentious weight limit on a key city bridge.
We asked the authority for an explanation on what information and options it had been faced with in the run-up to deciding to limit the weight of vehicles to 7.5 tonnes on Donnington Bridge.
This comes as the council said last month engineers had "carefully studied" the results of monitoring work on the bridge and the new rules were now being put forward as a "precautionary measure" due to the condition of its structure.
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The restriction took effect from Tuesday, August 20, affecting bus services, after it had been publicly announced a couple of days earlier.
Some councillors raised concerns about the "severing" of bus routes like the 46, and the cabinet member for transport management Andrew Gant acknowledged the council was "conscious that it’ll create disruption for larger vehicles".
A county council spokesman told us: "The decision to impose a 7.5t structural weight restriction is based on a review of the risks posed by the structure and an internal review based on the currently available information.
"This is a post-tensioned structure held up by tensioned cables within concealed ducts inside the concrete and there is considered to be a significant risk that some of these cables are corroding, which could result in their sudden failure, reducing the load carrying capacity of the bridge.
"This risk was last reviewed in 2004 and since then the condition may have deteriorated. The National Highways standard for assessing the risks has changed, meaning extensive investigations are now required to verify their condition.
"Until this review is complete it has been considered to be appropriate to impose a weight restriction to provide a margin of safety while this work is carried out.
"Our teams are currently investigating options for short and medium-term interim measures. Any actions will be informed by the findings of their investigations."
The authority added it had been liaising with bus companies in relation to services impacted which are the two routes using the bridge - the 46 and the ST1.
A spokesman for the Oxford Bus Company said the temporary new routes "represent the most efficient option so our services can operate as frequently and punctually as usual" and "we hope our customers appreciate this is an exceptional situation and we apologise for any inconvenience".
When asked for an indication of timescale for the closure, the county council said: "There is currently no timescale for the restriction being removed. It is likely that the restriction will remain in place for many months."
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About the author
Noor is the Local Democracy Reporter for Oxfordshire who covers political stories from across the county.
She began working as a journalist in Oxford in September 2023 having graduated from the University of Oxford.
Noor was trained at the News Associates journalism school and can be found on X through the handle @NoorJQurashi
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