Bridges and highway structures

Darlington Borough Council is responsible for 104 road bridges (including subways), 82 foot bridges and 113 retaining walls. These are all owned by the Council and are referred to as 'highway structures'. There are other owners such as Highways England that are responsible for structures on the A1(M) and the A66. Network Rail [external link] are responsible for numerous structures in the borough and there are also private owners.

Bridge maintenance and inspections

The Councils highway structures are regularly inspected and a programme of maintenance work is undertaken. Our aim is to ensure the safety of the public and to protect and maintain all our highway structures.

We achieve this by inspecting every structure regularly, prioritising, programming and implementing repairs to our highway structures

Highway Structures are inspected in 4 ways as shown in table 1 below.

Inspection frequency

Inspection	Frequency
General inspections	Structures are visited once every 2 years during which the condition of the bridge is recorded.
Principal inspections	Scheduled every 6 years. These require close inspection of all visible and accessible parts of a structure. They could also include material testing being carried out and divers being deployed to asses foundations in rivers.
Special or monitoring inspections	May be needed where specific parts of the structure require more frequent inspection to check condition. this could be things such as bridge piers in fast flowing water. Periodic or continuous monitoring may be suitable to check against a specific problem from worsening for example crack growth.
Emergency inspections	These usually arise as a result of a road traffic accident. A quick response may be needed to check for structural damage and to make the bridge safe.

Programme of works

The above inspection regime forms the backbone of the Councils highway structures programme of works. However things must be considered such as budget, strategic importance, location for example.