Back in March, I advised that I had approached Community Payback to see if painting the historic rail bridge that crosses the rail line at Riverside Drive, just south of the Botanic Garden (see right) might be a project Community Payback could take on.
The bridge is over 100 years old (built in 1903) but has not been repainted in a very long time. When I asked the City Engineer in 2010 what the cost of repainting both sides of the bridge would be, he estimated the total cost could be as much as £65 000 (this included substantial Network Rail possession costs/interface costs of approximately £20,000 to ensure both sides of the bridge were painted) and in the current challenging financial climate this has proved a very challenging project to find finance for.
Both the City Engineer's Department and Community Payback agreed to progress my suggestion of Community Payback painting the 'road' side of the bridge; the City Engineer’s Department providing appropriate paint and Community Payback undertaking the work. The work has been undertaken this week and as you can see below, the work has been extremely well carried out. It blends in well with Network Rail’s splendid job repainting the railings adjacent to the bridge some months ago.
