North Yorkshire County Council has brought forward the road closure over Dibbles Bridge on the B6265 between Hebden and Pateley Bridge, in order to carry out the next stage of current safety improvements.
The County Council introduced additional measures to improve safety at the bridge over the River Dibb last year, including extra warning signs and a temporary barrier. It is now carrying out further works to install a permanent safety fence on one side of the bridge. Once this is installed, the temporary barrier will be removed. The work will be completed before the Tour de Yorkshire travels the route at the end of April.
Erection of scaffolding began on Monday 7 March and was expected to take two weeks under traffic light management. Once the scaffolding is in place, the work begins to strengthen the bridge’s parapet before the safety fence is put in place.
The road was scheduled to be closed fully between 21 March and 24 March for the bridge parapet to be taken down for repair. However, the work to install the scaffolding has progressed quicker than expected and the bridge road closure has therefore been brought forward to 14 March for one week until 18 March. This closure will be dependent on weather conditions. Diversions will be in place.
Once the road is reopened the County Council will then need to let the mortar on the parapet cure for a week before it begins to install the improvement scheme and safety fence. This improvement work will now be done under traffic lights and no further road closures will be necessary. In total, the work is expected to take about seven weeks.
County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Highways, said:
Safety on the roads is always a priority for the council and we believe these measures will improve safety at this location.
However, while we know cycling in the Yorkshire Dales is exhilarating and challenging, we would urge everyone planning a cycle trip to make sure they and their bicycle are fully prepared, to make sure they have studied the route and to treat these challenging roads with respect and caution, especially on long descents that can be more demanding than people may expect.
We appreciate the road closure involved in this work will cause inconvenience, and we are therefore doing all we can to keep this to a minimum.
When is the section of road leading from pateley bridge to grassington going to be repaired . There have been traffic lights there for about 4 years which carolinis utterly ridiculous