Eastbourne residents worry about ‘cracks’ in bridge over train tracks

From photos, the bridge on Upper Avenue looks like it has cracks in it on both sides in several places. Residents said they saw it moving in the wind and when a train went underneath, and were worried the bridge could collapse at any moment.

A spokesperson for Network Rail Southern Region said: We’re grateful to the people who called our response line when they had concerns about Upper Avenue bridge in Eastbourne, and they did the right thing. All our bridges carry emergency phone numbers and code numbers, so people can contact us if they have concerns.

“We reviewed the pictures they kindly sent us, and a colleague visited the bridge to check on its condition. In this instance, the bridge remains safe and we have no concerns. There are expansion joints in the parapet you can see in the pictures, which allow different parts of the brickwork to move against each other, and some long-term hairline cracks that act as the bridge’s own expansion joints. This is because the parapet is a different material from the concrete-coated steel that forms the deck of the bridge, and will expand and contract at different rates.”

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