£20m Tyne Bridge refurb delayed to 2020

An overdue £20m makeover of the iconic Tyne Bridge will be delayed until 2020, with council bosses no closer to securing the necessary cash.

The iconic landmark, which is 90 years old, is in need of a major refurbishment — including a fresh coat of paint, road resurfacing, and other vital repairs.

It had been hoped that the work could begin this year, but Newcastle City Council is still waiting for the chance to bid for Government funding that would enable it to carry out the works — estimated to cost between £15m and £20m

Council documents reveal that “a bidding opportunity has not arisen” for the project since the plans were confirmed in 2017 and that any restoration is now unlikely to begin until 2020, then taking at least 18 months to complete.

The last major maintenance work on the historic structure was carried out almost two decades ago, between 1999 and 2001.

A Newcastle City Council spokesman said: “The 90-year-old Tyne Bridge is the North East’s most iconic landmark. This Grade II*-listed building requires regular safety checks, repairs, preservation and upkeep.

“The bridge is due a major refurbishment programme to preserve it for future generations, which would include the sizeable task of repainting the structure.

“We are looking to secure funding from the Department for Transport to allow us to undertake works to fully refurbish the bridge which would cost in the region of £15-20m.

“We anticipate that the refurbishment works would not start before 2020 and would take a minimum of 18 months to complete.”

The works would include:

       Full grit blasting and repainting of the bridge steelwork.

       Steelwork and cast iron repairs/replacement as required.

       Lighting repairs/replacement as required

       Concrete and drainage repairs within the towers

       Resurfacing.

       Road drainage and joint repairs/replacement

       Security improvements

As part of the project, damaged bird netting that has trapped and killed kittiwakes nesting on the Quayside will also be replaced.

Coun Greg Stone, Newcastle Lib Dem opposition transport spokesman, said: “It is dispiriting to learn that there is no imminent prospect of the Tyne Bridge getting a repaint. Clearly the work required is significant and at an estimated £15-£20m cost it is not cheap either.

“It is disappointing that the Government is not providing an opportunity to bid for funds to cover the cost of this work.

“The Tyne Bridge should be a shining symbol of our city-region at the heart of Newcastle and Gateshead’s Quayside, but instead it is becoming a shabby and scruffy symbol of under-investment in Tyneside’s transport network.”

Documents being presented to the Newcastle and Gateshead Joint Bridges Committee next week suggest that the repairs could be carried out in phases if a single source of funding cannot be secured.

A Department for Transport spokesman said that it was the council’s responsibility to organise funding the for work, adding that the Government had allocated Newcastle City Council more than £30m of funding for highway maintenance between 2015 and 2021.

Tyne Bridge refurbishment facts

In 1976, it cost around £66,000 to repaint the bridge, but it cost 10 times that in 1985.

The full cost of a restoration project, funded by the Department for Transport, which took place between 1999 and 2001 was £4 million.

The Tyne Bridge is due a fresh lick of paint, with its last coat applied in 2000 using paint that had an 18-year lifespan.

It is estimated it will take 10,000 to 15,000 litres of BS14C39 or ‘Greenwood’ paint to cover the entire structure.

It was opened on 10 October 1928 by King George V and more than 70,000 vehicles now cross the bridge every day