FIVE per cent of Bournemouth's bridges are classed as unable to carry the heaviest vehicles now seen on our roads, a new national engineering survey has revealed.
The RAC Foundation looked at every bridge in the UK for its report, which highlights a growing backlog in many area of repairing so-called substandard bridges - those unable to bear a lorry-weight of 44 tonnes.
Bournemouth, which has 42 bridges in all, from the tiniest hump-backed bridge to major road flyovers, has two bridges classed as substandard for the report's purposes. However, neither, it would appear, are scheduled to become full-load capacity and being classed as substandard in this regard does not make a bridge unsafe for other traffic.
Poole has 60 bridges with none classed as substandard and the Dorset area has 1,106 with none again classed as substandard.
The worst area in the UK for substandard bridges is neighbouring Devon, which has nine per cent of its 2,712 bridges unable to bear the weight of the heaviest lorries.
"Many of the substandard bridges are subject to weight restrictions," said an RAC spokesman. "Others will be under programmes of increased monitoring or even managed decline."
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