The bridge which runs over London Road in Wokingham Borough and the edge of Reading Borough is about to get a new lease of life with brand-new paintwork. The bridge carries the line from Wokingham and Reading as it makes its way to the town and currently its paint is rather faded and requires fully replacing in order to protect the structure from rust.
Work will get underway from Monday the 13th of February and the project will be ongoing until Tuesday the 9th of May with work set to take place from 7am to 6pm every day. Unfortunately, off-peak working is not a possibility for this job because the scaffolding which would be required would impact the carriageway itself and would mean that traffic lanes would not be able to be opened during peak times.
Network Rail Southern region's spokesman Chris Denham said: “We're going to shot-blast the steel back to bare metal, treat any corrosion and then give it a coat of green paint, which won't just keep the bridge looking good, but will keep the structure in good condition to carry trains well into its second century.
“Clearly London Road is an important route into Reading so we're going to paint half the bridge at a time, keeping one lane of the road open at all times, with temporary traffic lights.
“It's not ideal as we know this will cause some disruption, but the nature of the work and the need to keep our people safe while doing it, means we need to take this step. We'll also make sure there's a safe pedestrian route too.
“I'm very grateful to our neighbours in the town, who'll be hearing and seeing us work between 7am and 6pm for the next three months, but we will get a much nicer looking bridge out of the job at the end of it.”
Temporary traffic lights will see sides of the road swapped approximately halfway through the project which will allow painting to cover both sides of the bridge.
Due to the nature of the project, the structure will be hidden by scaffolding and a sheeted covering will prevent paint and debris from escaping the working environment.
