§ Mr. Lennox-Boydasked the Minister of Transport whether he is aware that over 5,000 road bridges in this country have been classified as unsafe for heavy traffic; and whether he can state how many of these it is proposed to reconstruct during the coming year?
§ Mr. BurginThe Royal Commission on Transport in their final report issued in 1930 gave the approximate number of weak bridges as 7,000, but I am unable to state the exact number of bridges which are unsafe for heavy traffic to-day. Some 2,500 weak bridges are privately owned and when the appropriate highway authority takes over responsibility for maintaining one of these a grant at the exceptional rate of 75 per cent. is available towards the costs of reconstruction. Proposals to reconstruct 130 such bridges during the financial year 1938–39 have been submitted.