Workers on The Schoolhouse Bridge restoration project on the Montgomery Canal have won a series of awards.
The Institution of Civil Engineers’ West Midlands Region gave the Small Projects Award – for projects with a value up to £2 million – to Maccaferri, Montgomery Canal Reconstruction Ltd, a subsidiary of Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust, Beaver Bridges, Macrete Ireland, MEA and Shropshire Council.
Recognising the remarkable work to restore the bridge, the judges praised the innovative use of Macrete’s Flexiarch system alongside Maccaferri’s Terramesh soil embankments.
They said the work reflected a commitment to the area’s cultural heritage and to enhance the local eco systems in a sustainable way. The same team was commended in the same organisation’s Heritage Awards.
Completion of the bridge, originally demolished in the late 1960s, marked another milestone in work to close the ‘Shropshire Gap’ on the Montgomery Canal in Crickheath near Pant.
Main contractor, Beaver Bridges of Shrewsbury, was highly commended by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (Midlands) in the under £3m Project of the Year award for its work on Schoolhouse Bridge. The company was also named Bridge Contractor of the Year at the New Civil Engineer awards.
Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust worked in partnership with other local canal charities to raise funds for the bridge through the Restore the Montgomery Canal! appeal – www.localgiving.org/charity/restorethemontgomerycanal – and managed the reconstruction.
Trust chairman Michael Limbrey said: “Our canal charities, which had spent so many years restoring the Montgomery Canal, faced a real problem at Schoolhouse Bridge. The old bridge carrying a country lane over the canal had been swept away perhaps 50 years before and the canal was now blocked by a road embankment.
“Our team of volunteers designed a new bridge, obtained planning and technical approvals and arranged all the legal agreements. Over five years, we raised funds through a public appeal which received tremendous support from private individuals, businesses and charitable trusts across the country.
“We were delighted what we were able to achieve through the enthusiastic support of the four specialist companies which have so deservedly been recognised by these awards.
“Now the bridge is finished but the canal bed still has to be restored and filled with water once again. Our volunteer work parties have been hard at work since the contractors left and are making great progress in reshaping the canal channel and making it watertight.
“The new bridge is part of a restoration which will bring boats back to the canal, joining Mid Wales to the national waterway network again with all the social and economic benefits that will bring.
“We know from other reopened canals that boats bring life to a canal and that boaters support local shops and pubs. Like those other canals, the restoration will protect the historic locks and bridges and safeguard its valued flora and fauna.”