Bridge Launch

That's what they called it and it certainly attracted a lot of spectators. Even the young swan was interested!

The bridge at Pooley Bridge collapsed on December 6,when the River Eamont flooded, and since then the town has been divided causing great hardship, particularly for businesses that rely on visitors. Now a temporary bridge is being put in place and is on schedule to be completed for Easter.

Today a huge crane arrived and many people watched as it guided and landed the nose of the new bridge onto the east abutment and then the remainder of the bridge was assembled and pushed across - a bit like big Meccano. This is clearer in the extra photo. But I liked this picture best, as it shows the new bridge butting onto the remains of the old stone bridge. You might like to compare this with the picture taken a year ago.

I was impressed with the way the whole spectacle was handled. There is a lot of information about what is going on, there were several people from the contractors mingling with spectators and willing to explain and answer questions, a viewing platform had been built. A great public relations exercise.
   
If anyone is interested, I have put some more photos on flickr, including one that shows the size of the crane, one of the young lady who was very helpful in explaining what was going on, one of the several TV crews around etc.