Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA) has commissioned the replacement of the railway footbridge at Soroba as part of the agreement it made in connection with the Housing Stock Transfer in 200.
The existing bridge, which links the Soroba Housing Estate with Drummore Road, will be replaced by a new structure at a cost of £820,000.
Work is to start on 15th February and will take around 6 weeks to complete.
The new steel footbridge –which will include ramps to facilitate access – will open to the public by 30th March.
There will be no public access to a footbridge for around 4 weeks of the work schedule. The alternative route for this period will be via McCaig Road.
A display of the plans will placed in the Community Centre in Soroba over the next few days. An article describing the works will be published in the Soroba Siren newsletter, which is distributed to all households within the estate.
Disruptions
- Working hours during the work, which is being carried out by Carillion, will generally be from 07.30am to 6.00pm.
- Weekend working will be kept to a minimum. However, restrictions imposed by Network Rail mean that a nightshift will occasionally be necessary. This will be either mid-week or at weekends.
Specific operations where night-time working will be required are the removal of the existing bridge and the erection of the new structure.
ACHA chief executive Alastair MacGregor said although access to all local estate roads would be maintained for the rest of the work, these two occasions of nightshift working will require the overnight closure of Drummore Road.
The dates on which the overnight operations are provisionally scheduled are:
- Saturday 27th Feb: 21.30hrs – Sunday Feb 28 17.40hrs (Existing Bridge Removal)
- Saturday 20th March: 21.30hrs – Sunday March 21 17.40hrs (New Structure Erection)
- Sunday 21st March: 21.30hrs – Monday March 22 07.45 hrs (New Structure Erection)
Mr MacGregor says: ‘Our aim is obviously to minimise disturbance to the residents of Soroba throughout the duration of these works, and a great deal of work has already gone in to ensuring that this is the case’.
‘Modern, silenced equipment will be used whenever it can be, and access will be maintained as and when required where at all possible.
‘Despite these efforts, there is unfortunately bound to be some disruption to local residents during the works. But I hope they will bear with us in the knowledge that what they will have at the end of it is a modern, state of the art footbridge.’
Argyll and Bute Council’s spokesperson for Transportation and Infrastructure, Councillor Duncan MacIntyre, says the community has waited a long time for the bridge to be replaced.
‘I am delighted that this work is now being done, and I am sure the new structure will be an enormous improvement on the existing bridge’.
Once completed, the ownership of the new bridge will pass to the Council.
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