Letters: How we could save £4m on Holmsley bridge work

SIR – Your article on the new bridge at Holmsley (A&T July 12) raises the numerous doubts about the scheme which you kindly published on my behalf some months ago.

Currently the total cost is £5.5m, with severe impacts on A35 motorists, threatening diversion chaos on the overloaded A326 and then through Beaulieu, Lymington, Everton and New Milton. A tempting alternative would be a rat-run through Brockenhurst.

First and foremost, the current bridge is still open to traffic, so it must have the necessary residual strength. Upgrading should not be a substantial exercise. There is plenty of easy access under the bridge and any necessary work at road level could be carried out at night.

Realignment is an expensive luxury. If you drive over the bridge to the requirements of the Highway Code, it is quite safe, having done this thousands of times. Visibility is far worse on the long, severe downhill bend from the Christchurch side.

I doubt whether there is any scope for realignments at the A35 bottlenecks at Christchurch and Lyndhurst.

If you can put a new bridge across the M27 in a weekend, why the vastly increased timescale at Holmsley?

A steel bridge designer supported by a welding and bolting technologist with an understanding of traditional structural steel could produce a strengthening scheme to be carried out by a proven site fabricating firm supervised by an independent inspection company.

No delays for vehicles, no new foundations for a new, heavier concrete bridge, no arguments about intrusions onto New Forest land – just use of an existing structure with simple strengthening. Sustainability would be demonstrated. It could even cost less than £1m.

Having had two potentially dangerous pothole punctures in the past year, the savings of some £4m eliminating these dangers would be appreciated.

John Jubb, Milford Road, New Milton