Parking restrictions due to River Severn steps' repair

Steps leading to the River Severn in Bridgnorth have been closed off after the partial collapse of an unrecorded vault.

Emergency repair work is to be carried out at the Bank Steps from Monday. The work will take about four days to complete and will see the vault filled with concrete in a painstaking task that will have to be carried out over a number of days to prevent further damage to the steps.

John Williams, bridges and structures manager at Shropshire Council, said: "Bank Steps, which connect Riverside and Cartway in Bridgnorth, are believed to have been largely built on a natural sandstone outcrop.

"However, based on what has been revealed by the recently discovered collapse, the bottom of the steps appear to have been substantially widened at some time and a vault was built to support this widening.

"It is the collapse of part of the roof of this vault that has resulted in the current hole that exists in the steps."

To ensure that the pressure of the wet concrete does not push over the vault's side walls, it will be only be possible to place a little amount of concrete in it at a time.

But to carry out the infilling work, it will be necessary to position a concrete pump on Riverside near the access to Bank Steps.

Therefore, to enable Riverside to be kept open to traffic when the work is under way, it is proposed to introduce a temporary parking ban along the length of Riverside between the entrance to the nearby pay and display car park and about 10 metres north of five Bank Steps.

Cars will not be allowed to park from 7.30am on Monday.

Once the vault has been infilled, it should be possible to reopen the steps to the public.

However, until the surface of the pavement itself has been repaired, the width available at the bottom of the steps will be narrower than usual.