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NIGHT-time drivers in Barrow may have to wait a while to cross Jubilee Bridge over the Walney Channel as Cumbria County Council puts the finishing touches to the bridge's £1.5million refurbishment.

Specialist contractors need to close the crossing on the night of Monday 13, Tuesday 14, 15 April. The bridge must be lifted for extended periods so that workers can paint parts of the structure which can't be reached while it is down.

Work will get underway after the last bus has crossed the bridge at quarter past midnight. The bridge will then be closed to traffic as a series of lifts allow the work to be completed. However, the bridge will be lowered periodically (at approximately 01.30, 02.30, 03.30 and 04.30) to let traffic and pedestrians across.

The work is expected to finish at around 05.30am when the bridge will re-open as usual.

The bridge will be lowered if emergency vehicles need to cross.

If the weather is good enough the job could be finished in a single night, but if it is bad the work could take longer.

Earlier plans to finish the paint job in mid March had to be postponed after engineers discovered a problem while carrying out a test lift of the bridge ahead of work.

That problem, which stopped the bridge from returning properly to the closed position, has now been rectified. A successful test lift has been carried out so the work can go ahead.

The finishing touches to the paintwork will mark the end of Cumbria County Council's £1.5million scheme to spruce up the bridge in time for its centenary celebrations in July this year.

When the refurbishment is completed, the all the metal work above and below the road surface will have been inspected, restored and repainted it in its original black and gold colour scheme.

Jubilee Bridge was built in 1908 principally to get workers from Vickerstown on Walney Island to Vickers Shipyard in Barrow itself.

It cost some £175,000 to build and a toll was levied for crossing the bridge until the bill was paid off in 1935. The bridge was renamed from Walney Bridge to Jubilee Bridge when the Queen Mother visited to formally waive the toll and make crossings free.

1:17pm Monday 14th April 2008

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