Drivers are being urged to follow in full A5 diversions around Lichfield next week to avoid hitting Britain’s most bashed railway bridge.
It’s feared major roadworks on the A5 near Lichfield could see drivers of high vehicles try to take a shortcut, or follow inaccurate sat-nav directions, directly into the path of St John Street bridge in the city.
Despite being clearly marked with height restrictions, the 4.2-metre bridge has been hit 28 times in the last 12 months, making it Network Rail’s most struck.
Bridge strikes cause delays for rail passengers across the country and cost taxpayers millions of pounds each year.
With roadworks starting on the A5 on Monday (6 July), Network Rail is advising motorists to follow Highway England’s diversionary routes which avoid the low railway bridge near Lichfield City station.
guessing the a5 is going to be shut between the to marks on your map?
heres a thought as its highways who are closing it for works. why dont they open the m6 toll for free even if its just between the junctions where the works are. as the diversion looks a bit long and is going to be busy.
edd1974:
guessing the a5 is going to be shut between the to marks on your map?
heres a thought as its highways who are closing it for works. why dont they open the m6 toll for free even if its just between the junctions where the works are. as the diversion looks a bit long and is going to be busy.
edd1974:
guessing the a5 is going to be shut between the to marks on your map?
heres a thought as its highways who are closing it for works. why dont they open the m6 toll for free even if its just between the junctions where the works are. as the diversion looks a bit long and is going to be busy.
Suggest it to network rail they would probably snap your arm off and pay highways England themselves for loss of toll fees themselves if it meant stopping the bridge being bashed.
trevHCS:
As for M6 Toll, ha ha, suspect they didn’t include free use of that in the contract. Would have been far too logical.
Came here to post about the M6 Toll. The forward thinking companies will use it as it’ll save them money in the long ron in both diesel and wages. Sadly you’ll find very few actually use it because very few in transport are capable of forward thinking.
The amount of road closures though the night now is ridiculous,I’m starting to believe highways departments think all freight moves by air or rail now…
I believe Network Rail try to get most of the money back from haulage co insurance now, but I suspect you’re right that it would save money. That would require joined up thinking and as they are basically all gov depts, that won’t happen.
The M6 toll seems to vary depending where you join it even within a small area. But at around £8 - £10 a time, I’m not sure most night trunks would want to pay for what it’ll cost getting across there.
They have to fix the roads, but there doesn’t seem to be much coordination between them. Sounds like they are shutting the A5 in 2 places, plus A38 a little further north in 1 or 2 places no doubt and I assume the M42 is shut. Gonna be fun.
Yorkielad:
The amount of road closures though the night now is ridiculous,I’m starting to believe highways departments think all freight moves by air or rail now…
As someone who has done nights for years there’s far fewer than there used to be. 2014-15 was peak night closure levels. M1 upgrades north of Nottingham were still on the go, the A1 was being upgraded to motorway around Catterick as well as Scotch Corner junction upgrade, M6…well that’s the M6. Pretty much every night the country was cut in half across the Midlands by full closures on every single motorway and major A road like the A1 going north/south.
have no idea what the works are there doing on the a 5.
but went down there today road was clear of roadworks but had signs up all over saying its closed every night from 6 07 20 to well cant remember exact date.
but seems what ever there doing is only overnight closures
trevHCS:
As for M6 Toll, ha ha, suspect they didn’t include free use of that in the contract. Would have been far too logical.
Came here to post about the M6 Toll. The forward thinking companies will use it as it’ll save them money in the long ron in both diesel and wages. Sadly you’ll find very few actually use it because very few in transport are capable of forward thinking.
I use a multi layered approach, call it multi layered forward thinking if you like. I dont blindly use the toll every day just because I can (its slightly longer than straight down the M6) unless I’m trying to avoid something on that stretch or its peak time. If all is clear I stick to the tax payer road so as not to incur extra costs.
Of course if we go macro level you then weigh up the costs of the toll and the size of the delay vs extra wages so anything less than a 45min (ish ballpark) delay on the M6 and its still cheaper to sit from a wage perspective.
I wonder if terrorists have ever considered they could seriously screwup the UK business by basically blowing holes in the A66, A50 and somewhere between Coventry & Brum on M6.
Loads of stuff has to move overnight as many things are “just in time”. Even farm snd buildong supplies stuff seems to be. Then again, Highways Agency keep trying.
On A5, I remember seeing something on the roundabout from the A38 (B summut connecting road). That mentioned long term roadworks but wasn’t sure what bit was covered. Been off for a week so will update when I see it.
Toll road, notballowed unless we pay for it snd that’s nearly an hours wages overnight. It comes out very handily for one of our routes, but not worth it.
trevHCS:
I wonder if terrorists have ever considered they could seriously screwup the UK business by basically blowing holes in the A66, A50 and somewhere between Coventry & Brum on M6.
Loads of stuff has to move overnight as many things are “just in time”. Even farm snd buildong supplies stuff seems to be. Then again, Highways Agency keep trying.
On A5, I remember seeing something on the roundabout from the A38 (B summut connecting road). That mentioned long term roadworks but wasn’t sure what bit was covered. Been off for a week so will update when I see it.
Toll road, notballowed unless we pay for it snd that’s nearly an hours wages overnight. It comes out very handily for one of our routes, but not worth it.
oh the IRA did that and i was stuck for a couple of hours
…and I’ve just passed a Screwfix lorry pass me beyond the the last turn off heading towards the bridge.
Tried flashing and waving to tell him to turn it it the side road of his choice but he didn’t see (or react) to me. He’ll have found out just 30 seconds later!
Bizarrely Screwfix is on Fradley Park, LICHFIELD…I’d have thought all staff would have been informed of the diversion and any new agency staff briefed?!?
trevHCS:
I believe Network Rail try to get most of the money back from haulage co insurance now, but I suspect you’re right that it would save money. That would require joined up thinking and as they are basically all gov depts, that won’t happen.
The M6 toll seems to vary depending where you join it even within a small area. But at around £8 - £10 a time, I’m not sure most night trunks would want to pay for what it’ll cost getting across there.
They have to fix the roads, but there doesn’t seem to be much coordination between them. Sounds like they are shutting the A5 in 2 places, plus A38 a little further north in 1 or 2 places no doubt and I assume the M42 is shut. Gonna be fun.
They will try and get as much as they can from insurance however what they can’t avoid is the poor reputation from rail passengers who couldn’t give a toss that a lorry has hit a bridge all they think is why are the railways taking so long to sort it out. That will ultimately cost them in the long run when those annoyed passengers will go in the car next time.
