Work to repair Burnley’s crumbling Centenary Way fly-over hit by delays

There will be an additional eight-week delay to the repairs.

The improvements, costing £3.2 million, are being undertaken on the seven-span A682 link, which is currently prohibited for vehicles with abnormal loads due to its ‘poor condition’.

It has been found the viaduct is in worse shape than feared and the deadline for completion, which was December 18 has now been put back to February 12.

David Leung, Lancashire County Council design and construction manager, said: “This major refurbishment of the Centenary Way Viaduct is vital to extend the life of the bridge.

“The A682 is a key route from the M65 and vital to the local economy, particularly as a route for HGVs.

“The project involves replacing and renewing a number of parts of the structure, including replacing the bearings and joints, repairing and waterproofing the concrete deck, and resurfacing.

“We’re currently working on the northern deck with the majority of the works progressing as planned and according to schedule.

“However we have found the concrete deck to be in a much worse condition than predicted by investigations carried out during the planning stages before work started.

“This means we’ve had to carry out a significant amount of extra repairs to restore the deck.

“We expect to finish work on the northern deck, and move over to the southern deck in November.

“We’re sorry for the added inconvenience this will cause, but our priority must be to make sure the repairs made stand the test of time.”

Transport for Lancashire, the county agency for public roads and railways, is contributing around £2.8 million to the project with the county council offering just under £400,000.

The poor state of the flyover was seen as a large problem at a time when Burnley has large infrastructure projects ongoing.

The work was designed to rectify the numerous defects identified in the structure and reopen it to all traffic.