North Yorkshire bridges manager Phil Richardson on Fore Gill and 'there’s always something to be getting on with'

The incessant rain has not been fun for anyone. But spare a thought, please, for the people who look after our bridges.

North Yorkshire, in particular, is home to hundreds of bridges of historical interest and, given the rural landscape of the Dales, for example, they are essential to stop the more isolated communities from getting stuck at home.

There is also intriguing folklore surrounding some of them. Take Devil’s Bridge on the River Lune in Kirkby Lonsdale. According to legend, an old woman had tried to coax her cow back from over the river when the devil appeared, and promised to build a bridge in exchange for the first body to cross over it. When it was finished, however, the woman threw bread over the bridge and her dog ran to retrive it, and in a rage the devil vanished.

Meanwhile, Kilgram Bridge over the River Ure near Jervaulx Abbey is apparently missing a stone, which if ever put back would bring about a dreadful fate for nearby residents.

Many, of course, are simply bridges. And whatever the story, they all need maintaining – in whatever conditions.

Phil Richardson is Bridge Manager at North Yorkshire County Council, so knows how important these structures are to the largest council area in the country.

“There is a lot of local importance on those bridges,” he says. “When people were walking around and with their horses, it was probably less important but now, with motor vehicles, we are required to get across rivers. Without the bridges that we maintain, it'd be very difficult to get around the county.”

After growing up not far from Malton and graduating from Nottingham Trent University with a degree in civil engineering, Phil did a year placement with Balfour Beatty, then worked with the company until 2014 before starting at North Yorkshire Council. He took up the Bridge Manager position in 2021.

“Every day is different, which is the one of the good things about this job, it's not mundanem,” says Phil. “There's always something needing fixing. There's never a dull moment and there's always something to be getting on with.”

He is clearly a man who likes what he does – his background on the video call is a picture of Newsham Bridge, which crosses the River Rye between Amotherby and Kirkbymoorside, near to where he lives.

Phil, 39, is talking to the Yorkshire Post after Fore Gill Bridge, in the hamlet of Arkle Town in Arkengarthdale in the Yorkshire Dales, reopened in December following a £2.2 million repair scheme.

Readers might remember headlines from when it partially collapsed on New Year’s Eve in 2023, following heavy rain from Storm Gerrit, exposing several large masonry arches hidden within the structure, making it inaccessible for motorists.

“Early on, we didn't know how much we had to do. All we knew was we had an area of collapse. It was following the site investigation that my team carried out we determined there was almost certainly some arches that were hidden, that hadn't been in-filled,” says Phil, referring to a process where a bridge is supported by placing material under an arch to prop it up from underneath.

In early January 2024, North Yorkshire Council’s bridges team completed a temporary repair to stabilise the road and ensure it could remain open until permanent repairs could be carried out.

The structure was monitored while a temporary road was constructed to divert traffic, ensuring that communities in the Upper Dales were not left isolated during the rebuild.

Work to rebuild the bridge started in April last year, with the new structure comprising geosynthetic soil-reinforced walls and a new masonry arch, designed to accommodate a wider road with increased load-carrying capacity.

Stone from the original structure was reused with a style in-keeping with traditional bridges in the Yorkshire Dales. Some 1,500 tonnes of the original stone was also used and incorporated back into the structure.

Weather, of course, is not only a crucial factor in bridges faltering but in building them back up again, as Phil’s department knew all too well after the collapse of Grinton Moor Bridge in 2019.

That being the case, they were pleased to have finished the greater share of Fore Gill works by the end of last year before they return in the spring.

“That was a big relief,” says Phil. “Obviously, it was good to get it done for Christmas so that the lads could leave and have a clean slate when we come back in the spring so we weren't coming back in January for a few months to try and finish.

“The conditions up there are difficult to work in because we are so much colder and wetter than in the lowland areas. We did find that Grinton, when the works were being done there to rebuild the bridge upon the Moors, the team working on that really struggled. They had weeks where they couldn't access the site because of the sheer amount of snow, it’s one of the highest bridges that was and it made the conditions really difficult to work in, and it just meant everything took a lot longer.”

Upcoming works at the site include removing the old road and approaches to it and taking out a steel pipe that was installed to form the temporary bridge. The works will involve measures such as temporary lights, however no closures are anticipated.