St Brides Road bridge

The UK’s Network Rail has completed replacing an ageing St Brides Road bridge over the railway in the Vale of Glamorgan with a larger and improved structure to help improve traffic flow.

Located between Ewenny and St Brides Major on the B4265, the bridge has been transformed from a one-lane bridge to a structure which can support two lanes of traffic and a pedestrian footway.

The £1.9m project, which upgraded the ageing bridge with a larger and improved structure, will help reduce a local traffic bottleneck.

"The new and improved bridge will help improve traffic flow for the local community and won’t need to be replaced for more than 100 years."

In order to accommodate any future electrification plans, the bridge has also been raised slightly.

Network Rail Wales programme manager Loren Curry said: "We understand the closure of this bridge inconvenienced the local community and we want to thank them for bearing with us while we worked on this vital project.

"We try to avoid reconstructing bridges where possible, but St Brides Road bridge was coming to the end of its life and needed to be replaced.

"The new and improved bridge will help improve traffic flow for the local community and won’t need to be replaced for more than 100 years."

The project was jointly funded by the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Network Rail, which has worked closely with the council regarding the diversionary route to ensure everything possible was done to reduce disruption and inconvenience.

Image: Work to replace Ewenny bridge completed. Photo: courtesy of Network Rail.