Planned Footbridge

The following has been cropped down from the original to give something that will download relatively quickly the final version is available via the Uttlesford web-site planning section via its reference UTT/0600/07/FUL Click the button below the drawing to get into UDC but note only Microsoft Explorer works and you must switch off your pop-up blocker. On this version I have doctored it a bit for clarity. The structure is surprisingly big until you realise it has to give a safe height, not above the trains but above the power lines and said 25,000 Volt power cables have to be a safe height above, not just the trains but high-sided lorries using the level crossing. From the drawings I make the footway over 28 ft above the ground (50 treads up, a typical domestic staircase would be only 12 or 13). This will make using it something for the fit and able. Quite apart from the disabled, prams and push chairs are not going to work. Its such a massive structure it reveals the reason it took tragedy to unlock the finance. I suspect however that the lifts will only be justified if/when the new settlement gets the go-ahead. Ramps are not an option because at this height a practical slope would cause the structure to far exceed available land and we would be scraping up mangled skateboarders on a weekly basis.

The design is not very friendly up top either, the sides are solid steel sheet and 5 feet high, presumably to defeat the hooligan element, not just lobbing junk onto the trains but kids with sticks poking the cables!

When the crossing gates are closed the pedestrian gates will be locked so if you can’t manage the stairs you must simply wait. My understanding of the so-called wheelchair regulations is that legally there is a test of reasonableness and disproportionate cost is a viable defence. Obviously we will press for the lifts but I don’t hold out much hope in the short term, sadly its “reasonable” for those unable to use the bridge to wait at the numbers we seem to have at present and the proportion of time the gates are to be locked.

I have acquired a copy of the final version of the drawings directly from Network Rail but the changes are in details only, not affecting the limited reproduction below. I also now understand many of the more obscure elements of the design, for example the “concrete cutwater protection barrier”. It’s a huge lump of concrete set onto deep piles sufficient to take the force of a derailed train to stop it taking out the support and bringing the bridge down. There’s a similar one by the road to stop a lorry doing the same thing to the critical support column there. The regulations covering the construction of footbridges are amazingly complex having grown seemingly forever taking account of every accident there has ever been and every pessimistic scenario anybody could think of.

What will be interesting is that the main span is to be made in one piece (1 make it 84 ft long or three London buses) and it will be delivered by road, this I’ve got to see and record for posterity! look at the size of it then consider the various routes available to it!

Geof