Tadcaster Bridge Emergency Works

Constructing Excellence

Following the devastating flooding in Tadcaster on December 29th 2015, the bridge in Tadcaster collapsed, splitting the town into 2.

Balfour Beatty (BB) was initially contacted by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) to make the collapse as safe as possible, to clear debris from the site and to install a 67m span temporary footbridge to re-connect the people of Tadcaster. Without this access, locals had to make a 9-mile detour of up to 20 minutes in the car to reach amenities and essential services on the ‘other side’ of town.

Following this, we would then look to repair and also widen the damaged road bridge to provide a permanent solution to the town’s division.

The road bridge is essentially 2 structures side by side. The downstream arches are the earlier structure, dated at around 1580, whilst the more recent upstream structure was added in the 1780s, 200 years later. It was the newer upstream pier and arches that failed during the 2015 flood event.

Given the bridge’s Grade II listed status, we had to draw on our extensive experience to source and deliver the traditional materials and techniques

needed to rebuild the bridge as the original structure. We used a blend of these traditional techniques with 21st century methods, including 3D laser scanning, to produce an efficient process and accurate designs which also delivered the key requirement from our Customer – to re-open the bridge as soon as possible.