§ 38. Mr. Anthony Greenwoodasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what action he is proposing to take as a 999 result of the report of one of his inspectors about the danger of weak bridges over railways
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI propose to give effect as rapidly as possible to the recommendations made in this report. The particular bridges to which it refers will be reconstructed as soon as possible except one, which will be by-passed by an alternative route for heavy loads. In general, the reconstruction of weak bridges over railways will be given high priority in the road programme. My divisional road engineers have been asked to report cases where hauliers ignore official warnings of the weakness of bridges and I would appeal to all concerned to respect such warnings.
§ Mr. GreenwoodCan the right hon. Gentleman say how many of these bridges are involved and how many years the work will take?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydThe hon. Gentleman's Question relates to the report of my inspector, which deals with five bridges. We propose to reconstruct four and to by-pass in the case of the other.