More than £550m needed to clear Scottish bridge repair backlog
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The one-off cost of clearing the total maintenance backlog for around 14,000 local authority bridges in Scotland has doubled in just two years, according to new statistics.
Figures compiled by the RAC Foundation found that the repair backlog rose from £252 million in 2015-16 to £374m in 2016-17 and £551m in 2017-18.
The study was part of a UK-wide analysis which shows that an estimated £6.7 billion is needed to carry out all the work that would be required on the 72,000 council-managed road bridges in Great Britain.
Between them the 200 councils across England, Scotland and Wales manage 71,652 bridges (defined as structures over 1.5m in span), of which 3,177 (4.4% of the total) are categorised as ‘substandard’.
Substandard means unable to carry the heaviest vehicles now seen on our roads, including lorries of up to 44 tonnes.
Many of the substandard bridges are subject to weight restrictions. Others will be under programmes of increased monitoring or even managed decline.
RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said establishing the condition of highway bridges is a “litmus test for the condition of our road network” and described the findings as “worrying”.
He added: “While we should draw some comfort from the good knowledge highway authorities have about the strength and structural integrity of their bridges, the fact is that many thousands are subject to enhanced monitoring, speed and weight restrictions, and the cost of bringing them up to scratch is continuing to mount.”
The proportion (4.4%) of substandard bridges is in line with that reported in 2016-17 (4.6% – 3,441 out of 74,005 bridges – based on data from 204 local authorities).
Between them, councils say they would ideally want to bring 2,026 (64%) of the 3,177 substandard bridges back up to full carrying capacity.
However, budget restrictions mean they anticipate that only 343 of these will have the necessary work carried out on them within the next five years.
The survey was carried out by the RAC Foundation with the help of the National Bridges Group of ADEPT (the Association of Directors of Environment, Economics, Planning and Transportation).
According to the Scottish-only data, the ten councils north of the Border with the highest number of substandard bridges are:
| Local Authority | Bridges | Substandard bridges | Proportion |
| Aberdeenshire | 1,293 | 65 | 5% |
| Perth and Kinross | 845 | 50 | 6% |
| East Ayrshire | 381 | 39 | 10% |
| Highland | 2,228 | 39 | 2% |
| Argyll & Bute | 900 | 28 | 3% |
| Scottish Borders | 1,201 | 26 | 2% |
| South Lanarkshire | 776 | 23 | 3% |
| Fife | 397 | 16 | 4% |
| Moray | 372 | 15 | 4% |
| Stirling | 315 | 12 | 4% |
The ten councils in Scotland with the highest proportion of substandard bridges are:
| Local Authority | Bridges | Substandard bridges | Proportion |
| Dundee City | 29 | 3 | 10% |
| East Ayrshire | 381 | 39 | 10% |
| Perth and Kinross | 845 | 50 | 6% |
| East Lothian | 189 | 11 | 6% |
| Glasgow City | 181 | 10 | 6% |
| Aberdeenshire | 1,293 | 65 | 5% |
| Moray | 372 | 15 | 4% |
| Fife | 397 | 16 | 4% |
| East Renfrewshire | 129 | 5 | 4% |
| Stirling | 315 | 12 | 4% |
The RAC Foundation also asked national roads authorities how their bridges were faring:
| Bridges | Substandard bridges | Proportion | |
| Highways England | 11,067 | 83 | 1% |
| Transport Scotland | 2,641 | 38 | 1% |
| Welsh Assembly | 1,251 | 96 | 8% |
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