Oulton Broad Swing Bridge Closed

[ranworthbreeze]

Oulton Broad Swing Bridge

We have been notified by Network Rail that Oulton Broad Swing Bridge will be closed from 1400 today to 0600 Wednesday 16th April 2014 due to staff shortage/sickness.

Angie Leeper

Asset Officer

Broads Authority, Yare House,

62 - 64 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1RY

tel 01603 756057

mob 07971 156076

fax 01603 756069

angie.leeper@broads-authority.gov.uk

[senator]

is there any need to open it given that the lock doesn't work?

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Ian,

The lock is operational but only by arrangement.

Regards

Alan

Oulton Broad - Mutford Lock – restricted operation

The Broads Authority has been working hard to rectify the damage to the electrical and hydraulic control systems at Mutford Lock following the flooding in December. We understand it is a high priority for users and have been doing our best to get it back into operation. The road bridge which was out of action is now fully operational.

Despite the damage to the Lock control systems it should have been possible to manually open the gates. However, as soon as one of the gates failed to open engineers were called to inspect them. Nothing was found to be visually wrong with the winding mechanism nevertheless the engineers still could not open the gate. This is most likely caused by additional debris behind the gates. A dive team carried out an inspection on Thursday 6th February and have now cleared debris which will allow limited manual operation of the lock by the arrangement with the Oulton Broad Yacht Station who can be contacted on 01502 574946.

The longer term solution to rectifying the damage to the electrical and hydraulic systems will make it more resilient to future flooding events. The replacement of the hydraulic system is expected to take 10 to 14 weeks.