Berkhamsted Canal Fields Bridge

The Canal Fields bridge belongs to the Borough Council since all Berkhamsted’s open space was given to the Borough by the Urban District Council in 1974 The Borough pays to maintain it out of our Council Tax and other funds.

                     Canal Fields Bridge

Repair policy
The Borough Council undertook a few years ago what looked like a thorough overhaul of the bridge, but when the bridge was re-opened it was clear that it had merely patched it. That is what it has been doing ever since. We all know that to call out the plumber to mend the hot tap one week, the cold tap the following week, the shower the week after, and the overflow to the cistern a few weeks later, is stupidly expensive There is a substantial cost in organising a group of men to come to Canal Field. To keep incurring this cost month after month instead of doing the job properly in one go is a gross mismanagement of our money



Vulnerability
This is a public bridge where people gather in groups at night and under cover of darkness and the influence of drink there is a lot of horseplay and inevitably someone tries to see if they can kick the bridge apart. The answer is yes they can because the planks are only nailed to the uprights not bolted. So this bridge is a cheap job at risk of vandalism What has also happened is that the planks which were about to break from rot were replaced leaving the others to be replaced as and when they would wait no longer.

                     Canal Fields Bridge

Yellow paint
Then there is the use of a strange supposedly cosmetic yellow wood finish which does not soak into the surface because it cracks like paint and allows the wet in to rot the wood which then does not last as long as it should. Some of the uprights holding the railings have been repaired with short concrete posts. Some have not and are leaning over There will presumably be another costly visit to replace them later. The planks of the walking surface were partly replaced and the old ones now need doing. It would have been cheaper and safer to do them all at the same time

                     Canal Fields Bridge

Concealed decay
The worst problem is not what you can see which is bad enough but what you can’t see. The wooden sub frame in the centre of the bridge is rotting away. You can see between the planks that the sub frame is much wider in some places than others and you can actually poke bits off with a stick because it is so rotten . The planks are bolted to this sub frame. Some of the bolts are missing but since the wood is in shreds the bolts are just show. A ludicrous attempt has been made to mend this with thin metal strips screwed along the edges. What else is going on underneath? When was it last inspected?



                     Canal Fields Bridge

Penny pinching
This bridge is penny-pinching at its worst. Not only are the repeated visits to replace and repair costing more than a decent job in the first place but we have a scruffy unsafe bridge which still needs to be done properly The pictures were all taken this year and you can see patching done at different times and broken or rotting areas still to be done.

FE February 2011