A MAJOR milestone has been reached in the building of the new Eastham Bridge.

The steel spans that are vital to the construction have been put into place during a three-day operation involving heavy duty cranes.

It means that villagers in Eastham can now see something that is really starting to look like a bridge.

Steel girders were lifted into place across the river Teme at Eastham, near Tenbury making it the most visible milestone yet for the new Eastham Bridge replacement project.

Two pairs of braced steel beams, 33 metres long and weighing in at 84 tonnes in total, will span the river and form the base for the new deck.

The A443 at Eastham was closed on Friday evening (February 24) to allow a 500-tonne capacity mobile telescopic crane to move on to site in preparation to lift the beams. There were local traffic diversions put in place.

On Saturday morning, the crane lifted the beams from the site compound into position across the river.

The road remained closed over the weekend.

Now the way is clear for the completion of work on the new bridge that it is expected will be open to traffic in the Spring, bringing to an end a year of inconvenience, worry and misery for people living in Eastham and the neighbouring villages and hamlets.

At the end of last year children at Lindridge School planted bulbs that it is hoped will be in full flower in time for a celebration to mark the opening of the new bridge.

Tragedy was narrowly avoided last May when the old bridge that dated back to the 1790s collapsed without warning on a calm May afternoon. At the time buses were taking children home from Lindridge School but fortunately there was no traffic nor people on the bridge when it fell into the River Teme.

An investigation has been undertaken into the collapse of the bridge that had been inspected in line with requirements in December 2015. Erosion of the foundations of the bridge has been blamed for the collapse.

Initially it was hoped that a temporary bridge would be put in place quickly and there was even discussion of possibly using an army-style Bailey bridge but this was ruled out.

It was then revealed that a completely new bridge would require a new environmental inspection that would result in long delays.

However, experts found that this would not be necessary if a new bridge was built on the same line and with similar specifications to the one that collapsed.

At the end of last summer this was the compromise that was agreed and work was able to start on the new bridge in the autumn of 2017.

This has resulted in villagers and school children having to go through the winter using narrow country lanes as well as facing a lengthy and expensive diversion.

Villagers have also been concerned about the additional time that the diversions have taken ambulances and other emergency services to reach Eastham.