Purpose

Prince Street Bridge is a harbour crossing
point between Mud Dock and Merchants Quay, providing a crossing for
vehicles, cycles and pedestrians. It has relatively low clearance
between the bottom of the bridge and harbour water level and when
larger vessels want to move westwards in the harbour, traffic is
halted and the bridge is ‘swung’ to allow vessels to
pass. Issues with the bridge’s working mechanism, primarily
the centre press, have been a recurring issue leading to failures
and staff call-outs over the last few years. The harbour
engineering team has carried out several temporary maintenance
interventions to prevent the bridge from jamming during operation
over the last two summers. If the bridge fails in a closed
position, larger vessels will be confined to the upper reaches of
the harbour. If it fails in the open position, vehicles, cyclists
and pedestrians will need to make a significant detour to cross the
harbour. Failure in a ‘half-open’ position will prevent
movement of both road and water traffic. Refurbishment of the
bridge mechanism will avoid potential failure resulting in
restricted movement of vehicles, pedestrians and/or vessels.

Content

Approval to use £250,000 funded by
Capital Receipts to carry out survey and repair to Prince Street
Bridge.