Whitby’s Swing Bridge will stay closed for another week, North Yorkshire Council has announced this afternoon (Thursday).
The current works were expected to be completed tomorrow (Friday July 10) but are now expected to be complete by Friday July 17.
In a new update, North Yorkshire Council (NYC) said the bridge will continue to be closed to vehicles and there will also be a period of closure to pedestrians.
This will be from 6pm on Monday July 13, to 2am on Tuesday July 14.
It is to allow work to be carried out which requires the bridge to be opened for river traffic.
While the pedestrian closure is in place, a shuttle bus will operate on Monday from 6pm until midnight.
This week’s works, so excavations behind the steel plate could be created, allowing additional space for the bridge to swing, were supposed to be completed tomorrow.
They followed an overnight closure last week to allow engineers to ‘shave off’ the ends of the bridge which meet. It was believed heat from the weather was causing expansion of the road surface and metal stoppers.
Over the last couple of months there have been several other occasions where the bridge wouldn’t close again and the fire service have cooled the road surface with jets of water.
Engineers were planning later this summer to re-surface the bridge with a lighter coloured road surface, which will reflect heat and the sun’s rays, rather than absorb them and expand.
