BW's plea to motorists: go slowly over hump bridges

Yes, I know Granny Buttons has beaten me to it with this one, but I had already written the following when his post appeared.

From a press release:

British Waterways says that damage to old canal bridges by road traffic costs £2.5 million per year to repair. That's money which should be spent on maintaining the waterways. BW estimates that at least two of its 1800 bridges are hit every week.

Head of Heritage for British Waterways, Nigel Crowe, said, "Whenever you go over a humpback bridge in Britain you are likely to be going over a canal. Often officially listed as being of special architectural or historical significance, these bridges have to be painstakingly repaired at considerable cost. We're working with the County Surveyors' Society and local authorities to improve signage and road markings, but, frankly, if motorists just slowed down a bit and took more care and attention then we'd not be defacing our heritage in this way on a day-to-day basis."

BW goes on to say:

Humpback bridges were built using traditional materials such as lime mortar and locally sourced stone or brick. Damaged sections of bridges are replaced with like-for-like materials, using skills passed down over many generations.


I wonder if BW will now come up with a figure for the cost of damage to bridges caused by boats hitting them. Across the whole system there must be many more than two hits per week in summer. Two hits per BRIDGE per week is probably an underestimate, especially on the popular cruising routes.


Perhaps if this bridge had been looked after it would have lasted better


Is this boat damage, or was the bridge poorly built? (Bridge on GU Leicester Section, February 2009)