Harrogate Borough Council
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Roads & Highways - Bridges
A bridge is a structure carrying the highway over a river,
canal, railway, motorway, etc , or, carrying a railway,
motorway, etc over the highway.
The County
Council is the Highway Authority and the 'Bridge Authority' for
the bridges owned by the Council. The County Council owns and is
responsible for around 28 highway bridges in Harrogate and
Knaresborough. There are also other bridge owners/authorities and
the largest of these are:
Highways Agency
(trunk roads and motorway)
Network Rail
(railways)
Strategic Rail
Authority (disused railways),
Environment
Agency (main rivers)
British Waterways
Board (canals).
As a rule the bridge usually belongs to the organisation (or
its successor) that had cause to need the bridge in the first
place. Ownership of bridges has been transferred in some cases,
such as when the responsibility for a route changes.
The County Council's bridges are inspected approximately every
two years and a programme of maintenance work is drawn up.
Incidents of damage through vehicle collision, storm damage, or
other causes are investigated as soon as possible. In the case of
damage to bridges by vehicles, reporting of the vehicle details may
mean it is possible for the County
Council to claim the cost of the repairs to the bridge or
culvert.