Corby road to be hit with closures again – just months after re-opening

The Cottingham Road bridge will be partially closed for six weeks from Monday, March 4.

Network Rail workers will remove the current crash barrier to strengthen it, before reinstalling it at an increased height. The bridge will reopen on Saturday, April 27.

During this time, there will be a partial road closure.

Vehicles will still be able to use the bridge, but traffic lights will be in place with motorists advised to allow additional time for their journey.

Pedestrian access will be maintained throughout the work.

The road was closed in January last year and did not open again fully until October, itself a delay of two months.

When asked why the crash barrier work wasn’t carried out during last year’s closure, a Network Rail spokesman said: “Additional protection measures were required around some of the utilities in the bridge, which meant that the road level was raised.

“This meant that the crash barrier needed to be raised, but there wasn’t time to do this in the original road closure and would have meant extending the closure again.

“Network Rail wanted to get the road open as quickly as possible, so we decided to come back at a later date, when the work could be done during a partial closure, to reduce the impact on users.”

A separate statement from the company said: “This work needs to take place following a project which took place last year to raise the bridge as part of the Midland Main Line Upgrade.

“The structure needed to be raised to allow a safe distance for overhead line equipment, ahead of the line being fully electrified from London to Bedford via Kettering and Corby.”

Principal programme sponsor for Network Rail Ed Akers said: “Firstly, we would like to apologise to motorists as we appreciate that this work will cause some disruption.

“We are doing all that we can to keep this to a minimum, such as having a partial road closure, but we do appreciate that this can still have an impact.

“Cottingham Road bridge has recently been upgraded as part of the Midland Main Line Upgrade, the biggest investment into the line since the Victorian era.

“We would like to thank residents, businesses and motorists for their patience whilst this final work on the bridge takes place.”