Taking the strain

摘要

Acombination of ageing infrastructure, more extreme weather and growing traffic volumes is putting an increasing amount of pressure on the UK's bridges. A recent RAC Foundation survey, carried out with help from the ADEPT National Bridges Group, found that 3,203 council-maintained structures over 1.5 metres in span are substandard. This is 4.4% of the approximately 72,000 bridges on the local road network and a 35% rise on the same survey in 2015.