Sunday, 23 July 2023

Footbridge south of Harris Academy - further update #dundeewestend


Further to the vandalism of the footbridge over the rail line south of Harris Academy some time ago, we advised residents recently that the council's City Development Committee had approved the tender to allow works to proceed to repair and re-open it.

We recently asked for an update in the hope it can re-open by the end of the school summer holidays and we also asked about the possibility of a cycle ramp to be added during the repairs, as requested by residents.

The City Engineer (Design & Property Services) at Dundee City Council has now responded as follows :

“The contract for the repairs has been let but are within the booking system for Network Rail overnight possessions. First availability of these is 8-9 weeks off so the bridge will not be open for the start of the new term. We are totally at the discretion of Network Rail so there is not much we can do to improve this unfortunately.

Regarding the second point about a cycle ramp, no this is not feasible on this structure as the stairs are timber and insufficiently robust for a steel channel to be affixed.”

We do hope that the necessary rail possession is agreed to ASAP so that the repairs can take place.