Roads And Highways - Bridges (General)

A bridge is a structure carrying the highway or right of way over a feature such as a river, canal, railway or motorway, or carries a railway, motorway, or similar over the highway.

The Northumberland County Council is the Highway Authority and the 'Bridge Authority' for the bridges owned by the Council. The Northumberland National Park Authority is the first point of contact for bridges associated with the rights of way network within the Northumberland National Park. There are also other bridge owners/authorities and the largest of these are the Highway Agency (trunk roads and motorway), Network Rail (formerly Railtrack), British Rail Property Board (disused railways), the Environment Agency (main rivers) and British Waterways Board (canals). As a rule the bridge usually belongs to the organisation (or its successor) that had cause to need the bridge in the first place. Ownership of bridges has been transferred in some cases, such as when the responsibility for a route changes.

The rights of way bridges within the Northumberland National Park are inspected approximately every three years and a programme of maintenance work is drawn up. Incidents of damage through vehicle collision, storm damage, or other causes are investigated as soon as possible. In the case of damage to bridges by vehicles, reporting of the vehicle details may mean it is possible for the Authority to claim the cost of the repairs to the bridge or culvert.

Local Government Service List Number 553

Email: landscape.recreation@nnpa.org.uk
Telephone: 01434 611537
Fax: 01434 611656