§ Mr. Penhaligonasked the Secretary of State for Transport if the full implementation of the Armitage report would require the strengthening of any bridges in the United Kingdom or the introduction of further weight access restrictions.
§ Mr. FowlerNo. The Armitage inquiry considered this and concluded that its recommendations would not require any extra expenditure on bridges. The findings of the Armitage report are that for the short-medium span bridges—which comprise the vast majority of the total population of road bridges—there would not be a need fro any strengthening or weight restrictions, subject to appropriate axle spacing being adopted. The same would apply to the relatively few longer span bridges under normal traffic flow conditions, but the effect of possible queues of the heavier vehicles is being studied.