The cast iron railway footbridge at Strathbungo was originally built in 1877 and for the first 85 years of its life it didn’t reach the other side of the railway line. It originally only provided access down from the street to the railway platform. It was not until a refurbishment project was carried out in 1962, on the green fields at the other end of the bridge, that the bridge was extended all the way across to the other side.
Plans to remove the structure were met with public resistance and it was agreed in 2015, by network, rail that the structure should be preserved and a refurbishment programme of works were planned to commence in October 2018.
Millar Callaghan were awarded the contract to remove and replace the decking and carry out any essential repairs to the structure. After a full survey of the structure was carried out, new floor panels were manufactured to replace the existing. Due to the level of corrosion in some areas, existing structural sections of steelwork had to be removed or strengthened before the new decking could be installed. The existing bridge was so low that there was no space to install a crash deck below the bridge to protect the trains from work being carried out on the bridge, therefore all of the new decking had to be installed during night possessions of the railway, when there were no trains operating. On completion of the deck installation and painting a new anti-slip surface was applied to the new deck.
