HIGHWAYS chiefs have faced a race against time to ensure Bolton's crumbling bridges can carry huge juggernauts.

New European regulations have forced local councils to make their bridges strong enough to cope with 40-tonne wagons from January 1.

These massive trucks have been able to use the roads of Europe for a number of years.

But they were classified as abnormal loads in this country until the start of this year.

For Bolton, this has meant a £10 million programme over the last decade to bring bridges up to standard.

Councillors will be told at a highways sub committee meeting today that the most urgent work has been done.

But the planning and environment committee has more than £2 million allocated in its budget for the next 12 months for more assessment and strengthening work.

Bolton has 256 structures which need to be assessed. So far 100 have been done.

Of these, the majority are council-owned - the rest are owned by Railtrack, British Rail Property Board, British Waterways Board, some are privately-owned and some are of unknown ownership.

The assessment has revealed that 49 of the council-owned bridges or other structures failed the assessment.

Of these, 25 have been either reconstructed, strengthened or repaired and the rest are being programmed for strengthening in the short to medium term.

Already interim measures are planned to redirect traffic or to restrict vehicles using them.

Some measures have already been brought in such as on Ormrod Street and Newport Street in Bolton town centre where a one-way system has been to protect an underground tunnel has been implemented.

The tunnel is owned by Railtrack but Bolton Council has carried out the work as part of its statutory duty to protect the public highway. Mr Adrian Golland, Bolton's assistant director of environment, said: "We feel that the most important work has been carried out such as the bridges on St Peter's Way.

"Elsewhere, we have redirected the traffic in such a way that the weight of vehicles on them have been reduced."

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