Work on widening the Chapelton Bridge in Port Glasgow has taken a major step forward with the delivery of six pre-stressed concrete beams which will form the new road deck.

The 11-metre long beams were lifted into place by a massive, 300 tonne capacity, mobile crane. The smallest of the beams weighed in at six tonnes with the largest weighing 32 tonnes.

The £650,000 project is being funded by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), and Councillor Dr Martin Bartos, Chair of SPT, was on site to watch the lifting operation.

Dr Bartos said:

“This is an important project that will improve road safety and cut congestion.  The bridge is a key public transport artery and widening it will improve access for buses, making services more reliable and more attractive to the public.

“The new pavements will also be more than twice as wide as the existing ones, making them much more user friendly for pedestrians and cyclists – an important consideration as Chapelton Bridge is the one of the key routes to St John’s Primary School.”

Councillor Michael McCormick, Convener of Inverclyde Council’s Environment & Regeneration Committee added:

“This project will significantly improve the local road network, particularly in terms of creating a viable alternative route if there are problems on the A8. We appreciate that this has caused a lot of disruption and we thank local people for their patience.”

The pre-stressed, concrete beams were manufactured in Northern Ireland. They are highly engineered components and only three firms in the UK had the engineering skills to make them.

Work on widening the single-lane Chapelton Bridge began in November last year.

Picture:  Councillor Dr Martin Bartos, Chair of SPT, at Chapelton Bridge on site to watch delivery of the beams.