Posted on Wednesday 27th November 2024
A temporary bus service has been set up to provide a link between Branston and Burton town centre following an emergency closure of a road bridge.
Branston Bridge was temporarily closed last week after a 7.5 tonne weight restriction was repeatedly flouted by lorry drivers. It is now only open to pedestrians and cyclists until a solution is found.
Now the county council has stepped in to put in place a temporary service between Branston and Burton town centre from Monday 2 December.
The hourly service will enable residents to travel to the town centre and connect to Lichfield. It will operate through Branston Road and Burton Road, turning around the Regents Park loop before returning to Burton.
The service will operate between 8.30am and 6.30pm Monday to Saturday. The morning and afternoon services between Regents Park and John Taylor School will continue to operate as normal.
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for strategic highways Mark Deaville said:
Whilst the emergency closure of Branston bridge has been unavoidable as we must protect people’s safety, we understand the need for connectivity for Branston residents into Burton town centre.
We’ve now put in place a temporary service which we will continually review with partners.
We will inform people of further developments as we work hard to find a solution to enable vehicles to access the bridge again.”
The 185-year-old bridge has been experiencing structural issues and was previously restricted to vehicles weighing no more than 7.5 tonnes with a width limit of 2.3 meters.
People can find out more about the Branston Bridge works on the project webpage.
They can sign up for the East Staffordshire highways update on the county council’s email update webpage.