Plans to fix bridges will mean lorries won’t have to go through villages

Replacing inadequate bridges leading to Braintree’s huge incinerator will remove the need for abnormal loads to travel through villages, the site’s operator has said. Lorries transporting piling rigs approximately 35 metres long, 3.7 metres wide and 4.8 metres high have been given permission by Essex County Council’s development and regulation committee to travel through small villages to the Rivenhall Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF).

The original planning application conditioned that all lorry movements had to be off the A120. The change allows abnormal loads to access not via the A120 from the north, as initially conditioned, but via Woodhouse Lane to the south of the site. This means lorries driving off the A120 near McDonald’s, through Tye Green, Silver End, before turning into Woodhouse Lane.

Accessing the site via the north requires travelling over two bailey-style bridges over the River Blackwater which the developer has not been able to establish could hold the load required to transport the piling rigs. However, plans have now been submitted to Essex County Council to replace the bridges with one more substantial structure capable of carrying abnormal loads.

A statement as part of a planning application said: “More recently piling rigs needed to be transported to the site however, the adequacy and structural suitability of the two bailey bridges situated along the access road have been questioned, with the safest alternative being to bring such large loads abnormal loads in via Woodhouse Lane.

“Indaver accept the sensitivity of the need to use this alternative route hence it is a proposal to upgrade the existing two bridges to ensure suitable and direct access via the A120, avoiding the need to use Woodhouse Lane and ensuring compliance with condition 8 of the planning permission.

“Whilst Essex County Council have previously accepted the need to allow for abnormal loads to use the Woodhouse Lane route to ensure the construction timetable is met for the IWMF, applications for regular HGV access via Woodhouse Lane would be strongly resisted as a longer-term solution.

“Indaver have therefore been working towards the design of a replacement bridge which will avoid the need to temporarily use local roads for such large deliveries, with a new bridge replacing the existing ones, located across the River Blackwater.

“This planning application therefore seeks to provide a more suitable solution with bridge works being proposed to address local concerns and to ensure delivery of the overall construction of the IWMF in accordance with the planning permission and to meet the planned construction timetable.”

A separate application seeks to widen a section of the private access road to create a queuing lane for HGVs.

References

1. ^{^} Chelmsford residents furious as they will not be able to park outside their homes (www.essexlive.news)
2. ^{^} Demolishing Essex pub that lost licence after drugs raid ‘not acceptable’ (www.essexlive.news)