Surveyor inspects inside footbridge

On 15th November 2016 a small but momentous event took place. After a lot of negotiation by Friends of Alton Station (FAS), we managed to get access inside the footbridge. A small group gathered at Alton Station in their orange reflective jackets: a representive of Osborne (Network Rail appointed contractor), a 'Sumo' structural engineer (specialist in wooden structures, contracted by Osborne), our engineer (Kim Collins of Integral Engineering Design, contracted by FAS), Paul Ebbutt (FAS committee member and retired railway engineer) and Gary Appleton (FAS committee member and professional carpenter). Paul Ebbutt, who led the group, found the Osborne and Sumo engineers to be very helpful and would like to extend our thanks to them for their time and input.

The group spent more than an hour looking at the footbridge inside and out, giving them a good opportunity to see the condition of the framework and how it was constructed. The agreement is that Integral Engineering Design will write a structural engineering report based upon their inspection and the two Network Rail reports. This will be combined with further professional input from Paul Ebbutt and Gary Appleton. The resulting report will therefore be a realistic view of the footbridge in terms of what needs doing (including structural calculations) and how this might be done. We are also hoping to get the recommended repairs costed by a quantity surveyor, finally giving us the full picture of what we're up against. Watch this space.