Cultural Vandalism? Great Musgrave Bridge
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- This is a historic railway bridge on the B6259 in Great Musgrave in Cumbria, England. Built over 150 years ago, It crosses the former section of the Eden Valley Railway that last saw trains back in the 1950s. Highways England recently caused some controversy in its decision to infill the bridge with concrete as part of a maintenance program on historic railway structures in England. It has been described by railway groups and civil engineers as completely unnecessary and has been branded as cultural vandalism. Highways England maintain more than 3,000 historic railway structures in England and said this work was necessary to keep the structural integrity of the bridge safe to allow heavier traffic to use it.
Here I take a look at the work that was recently carried out by Highways England in June and July of 2021.
Filmed with southwest455 - / @southwest455
#historicrailways
#Musgrave
#HighwaysEngland
Probably intended to make it much harder to ever reopen the railway lines
Kings Lynn council built a sports centre directly on the trackbed of the old Hunstanton line when there was more than plenty of room either side of the former trackbed,
Ì think that sports centre is now also being demolished
@@jonathaneastwood2927 no.....
Lynn sport
...yes, to say the least. Blame the Tory politicians who have no interest in the long-term. Absolute philistines.
Seems assinine to me: if the bridge is that bad, replace it; if it isn't, don't. Just do the bloody maintainance. In fact I'd go as far as 'petty and vindictive' as I think about it. Is the spirit of Ernest Marples alive and well?
Well said Sir!
It’s absolutely unnecessary and yep it’s vandalism 👍
Thanks for posting this Morthren.
This was unbelievable to see but really no surprise by the Highways Agency bell-ends. As for the remaining 60+ bridges to be fixed why don't they get the team behind this decision to do the work with the costs coming out of their own pockets and if they have to sell their homes and cash in their generous pensions to pay for it, so be it, why should the taxpayers to foot this bill through no fault of their own.
As it happened they were refused the retrospective planning permission after the 1,644 tons had been poured and the agency tossers will have to spend about £431,000 removing the infill.
I wouldn't say its vandalism, but it is definitely the dumb way of fixing the problem. Even a total brand new bridge would of been cheaper then that..
never mind a three d printed bridge..
Has the practice been halted now? Amazing how it's a job that could have cost £5k to fix the proper way but they chose the totally wrong approach and at £124k.
Need to check who's palms are being greased here. Smells a lot like those third party companies local councils hire to do jobs like tree felling in Sheffield and then all of a sudden every tree in a public place was diseased and needed chopping down, not really of course but effectively a bounty had been placed on the trees for the company to get rich from thus every one had a disease so they could collect £££.
Yup ain't that a fact !
While I'm sure there were collateral benefits to be reaped I'm sure it's deeper than that.
We should make them pay by parking in those lay-bys they oh so love to close.
This is identical civil service mindset that tried hard to close the canals by filling the locks with concrete. Only a few good people led the protest which resulted in our wonderfully restored canal system. We must be vigilant......
too right vigilant, re-branding time is it?
"it's just an old railway bridge" Is the attitude sadly, if it had become a well used public footpath or even a flipping cycle route then perhaps they would have maintained the bridge properly and kept the opening open
Flipping ?
Yup. Councils have gone bonkers.
In North Tyneside there are some stunning churches with massively important graveyards. One such church, St Alban's in Earsdon, has a large graveyard which includes the location of the mass burial plot of the victims (most of them) of The Hartley Pit Disaster - a mine disaster that changed legislation forever. Over 200 victims buried there.
The series of graveyards are owned and managed by North Tyneside Council and are seriously - I mean terribly neglected. A large influx of complaints saw the council change the status of the graveyard to 'wildlife corridor'. It's a wholly rural location. The overgrown neglected yard is now protected from being tidied up and therefore the council can ignore it!
This blocking up of old railways has nothing to do with local councils. It's Highways England, or, more precisely, their political masters.
It's always long term cost. When they fill it up they probably won't have to deal with it again for some years. Problem is it kills historical structures.
I understand concrete is carbon-intensive to manufacture, is this even a rational deployment of resources?
Of course it's vandalism on a par with Islamic State shelling the Buddhas carved into the mountainsides to erase the past.
That sounds hyperbolic when I read it back but I struggle for another metaphor.
I think you are spot on Phil
Good vid,why didn,t they just knock it down?
Cheers.
Spot on. The excuse is that they are 'Weak bridges'. This argument does not hold up - they are all on small country roads, where traffic levels are miniscule - they are not being hammered by loaded artics every ten seconds. I saw another video about this, and people were confident enough to stand in the road to discuss it, as they knew they wouldn't be bothered by traffic.
The whole thing reeks of 'incomers', as well. They see an old bridge, and, having no knowledge of engineering, assume that it's going to collapse, and complain to the Highways Agency, who seem to be run, at present, by Ernest (Utter Crook) Marples wannabees. Filling these arches will damage them over time, as the infill will introduce damp to the structure, which, not having a through flow of air, to evaporate the damp naturally, will just get wetter and wetter. Add to that, the infill will not be packed down by traffic vibration, (there isn't enough), it will, due to the depredations of the weather, crumble away from the neat pile, and look unsightly.
It's a bloody eyesore, to be honest.
That 124 grand could have filled a great many potholes, that ARE a problem, and could kill people.
Very interesting. I love finding places like this
Nice to see a posting from you, Morthren; hope things are well with you and your countrymen.
The thing I take away from Highways England's action versus what some others offered as an alternative solution is that, while costing more money, pouring concrete takes less time than would perhaps a proper repointing job with an eye toward preservation/restoration. In other words, they took the easy, expeditious way out.
Bit surprised by the sloppy pouring given that a stream apparently now utilizes the old railway's right-of-way (culverts visible at 1:17). Were this bridge here in the United States, our radical environmental groups--had they learned of the government's intentions--would certainly have gone to court seeking a work embargo while also demanding an alternative solution so as to protect the stream and its ecosystem. Our tree-huggers would scream bloody murder over the concrete's contamination/poisoning of the water.
In any case, it's truly a shame to see a historic structure such as this so callously covered over in concrete. Don't know if you folks have anything similar, but in the U.S. nothing like this could ever happen to a structure placed on the National Register of Historic Places (Such designations also exist at the state and local levels.) Sad.
Thanks Michael, for putting those points so succinctly. Your helpful nudge towards our equivalent Nat. Reg. would not get us far when there are thousands of (very) similar bridges on disused lines which have no chance of meeting the requisites.
If I may say, the hardcore activists have their eye off the ball here and are so wack they get little public sympathy.
@@philt4346 Phil, you're welcome for the posting. Here in the U.S. not every old, "historic" structure gets preserved either. In New York City (where I currently reside in The Bronx) rebuilding constantly removes older buildings, including those that some feel are worth preserving but--as you noted--don't pass muster for saving.
The bigger surprise, for me, in this particular case was not the bridge's "destruction" but rather the sloppy means used to carry out that destruction.
I mean you could join forces with the rest of the local community to dig out the infill Job
As always your film looks beyond the obvious, to the 'what was' or 'could be again'. Great observation and film work. Sorry I haven't seen this one before, and hope all is well with you?
The amount to fix it 5-10 grand, the amount to fill it in was about 120+ grand wasn't it? Insane, it really is.
Why didn’t the film show images of what it was like before infill ? That would have added weight to the case. Anyway, we look forward to the undoing of this vandalism
The Whitewicks hav done a vlog similar to this and about the infilling this is just not on. This needs saving for future generations. If you follow the route in 1 direction you head near the guys house
It’s completely unnecessary! 😠 They just don’t think of the possibility of former railway lines such as this one reopening in the future.
that's exactly why it's been filled in and not maintained... to prevent the possibility of a line re-opening... because, money!
What do I think, use 50kg of high explosive once tracks are laid either side, once the mess and bridge is gone run tracks through and run trains, Highway England will not have a choice other than to spend £2m at least and will have to involve Network Rail per bridge ro rebuild/replace over active railway. If Highway England has £124k for infill instead of £10k f8r repair, then they can jolly well spend £2m per bridge or have flying cars over the gap with trains passing through.
Just a quick solution. Obviously don't want to work to much ... nevermind the cost.
Like these vids.
Fix the bridge. Don't ruin its past.
Think yourself lucky as around here they removed a bridge over a disused line completely.
A Really Good Video All The Best.
I’m gonna have to swear the friggen world’s gone mad , I suppose it was health and feckin safety in case it fell down 😖☹️😩🥺😢 and a thumb down what’s going on 🤔
Highways England cannot manage a 2 inch deep pothole, let alone a historic structure like this bridge. Of course they ballsed it up, won’t be the last stupid thing they do either
Who got the contracts? Perhaps there is some favouritism going on? Perhaps they were just being lazy and just wanted to get it done rather than think. Sadly, bureaucrats are always willing to be lazy and spend the taxpayers' money.
Check out Mudflood theory, then you'll understand why they would do such things.
20.05.2022 16:49-20:59
Network Rail are even worse at this
Cupid stunts.
Pretty cool :)
You mean LAZINESS Morthren. This 'work' was so dumb and unnecessary. 🤷♂️🤦♂️