Bridge fault will hold up Selby bypass
08:17 28 Apr 2004
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Skanska's £42.6m A63 Selby bypass project will be completed two months later than planned due to the discovery of a fault on the scheme's swing bridge structure.
The Highways Agency (HA) said it was "too early" to talk about penalties for the delay on the fixed price contract.
Following numerous tests on the £4m, 100m swing-bridge across the River Ouse, it was revealed that there was a design problem on one of the hydraulic jacks.
All four of the bridge's jacks will now need to be replaced and retested by subcontractor Cleveland Bridge, at a cost believed to be around £10,000, before the last section of the bypass in North Yorkshire can be opened.
Skanska had delivered two-thirds of the bypass between the A1041 and Hambleton on the A63 ahead of schedule. This was opened last month.
However, the contractor's planned late April completion date for the final section will now be put back until the end of June following the component problems.
An HA spokeswoman said: "Skanska won the contract because it said it could deliver the project five months ahead of the September completion date specified by the agency. It now looks as though the project won't be completed until the end of June."
John Harman, Skanska project manager for the Selby bypass, told CJ: "We had to test the bridge over 300 swings and after 200 swings we found a fault. The problem is to do with the jacks, which now need to be replaced. This will take two to three weeks to fix.
"The whole point of carrying out tests is to look for problems such as this," he added.
Abdul Farooq, technical director with the scheme's designer High-Point Rendel, said: "I wouldn't say the project is experiencing problems. We have been going through the commissioning runs and one or two components on the bridge are being replaced."