AN £83,000 contract to repair one of England’s most famous bridges - the Grade I listed Grosvenor Bridge over the River Dee at Chester - is nearing completion

Built in 1832 and officially opened by the Princess Victoria Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld and her daughter, the future Queen Victoria, the Grosvenor Bridge was, at the time of its construction, the longest single-span arch bridge in the world, a title that it retained for 30 years.

The repair contract for Cheshire County Council requires DCT Civil Engineering to replace a reinforced concrete walkway which was added to the bridge during the 1940s to provide safe pedestrian access to the bridge from the Chester end.

This has involved removing the original stone parapet, breaking out the failed concrete cantilevered beam and replacing it with a new pre-cast reinforced concrete beam.

Following the installation of the new beam, specialist stonework contractor Stone Edge returned to site to re-build the original stone parapet and make good the surrounding structure. As the bridge is a Grade 1 listed structure the rebuilt parapet has to be identical to the original.