Derbyshire County Council closes 'rat run' road while emergency bridge works take place

Longmoor Lane bridge in Sandiacre was badly damaged by a fire caused by an abandoned van in the early hours of Monday, June 10.

Structural surveys carried out by Derbyshire County Council after the fire showed that it was structurally unsafe and has been closed to traffic since.

Despite an official diversion, many vehicles have been using Sandringham Road as a cut through, causing damage to grass verges and traffic chaos at peak times.

The council has taken the following actions to help residents on Sandringham Road and the roads that lead off it including: More signs on all the approach roads to Longmoor Lane; Putting stones down on grass verges on Sandringham Road that have been damaged by cars driving on top of them. All verges will be re-instated back to grass once work to replace the bridge has been completed; Taken measures to re-open Bostock’s Lane northbound.

The council is also putting in place measures to make Sandringham Road ‘access only’.

This will be in place in the next few days.

Officers are now looking at options to reopen Longmoor Lane. bridge and building a new one, or filling in the space under the bridge.

The land under the bridge is owned by the Sandiacre Canal Trust and the council has had discussions with the trust about the possibility of filling it in.