PICTURES: Sterling work by community volunteers to fix Wick bridges
Wick Paths Group (WPG) has been busy mending the pedestrian bridges across the town’s river after areas of rot were noticed in timbers.
WPG secretary, John Bogle sent out “a big thank you” to chairman Willie Watt and vice chairman Allan Bruce who, last weekend, started the repair work on the Coghill Bridges to replace rotten wooden bearers.
Mr Bogle added: “One bearer was replaced on each bridge with another three or four to do yet on the bigger bridge. Well done both.”
The volunteers carried out major repairs on the bridges a few years ago for which they received an award.
“At the time we replaced any of the wooden bearers that were rotted and covered the walkway with non-slip panels,” added Mr Bogle.
“We did not replace all the bearers at that time but now over the years more have rotted. The bridges remain safe because of the non-slip panels but at the very edges, where the bearers are exposed, they can rot away and leave a hole, which is what happened to the one that Willie and Allan replaced.”
He said the group’s volunteers keep an eye on the bridges and carry out maintenance when required. WPG has materials to replace a few more bearers.
“Ideally, the wooden bearers would be replaced by recycled plastic ones but the cost of this would be astronomical.”
WPG chairman Willie Watt said: “This is an ongoing maintenance task and as John stated we would like to replace the timbers for recycled plastic versions. However, they are more costly.
“That said the latest wooden ones we used were larch and they are almost on par with plastic so going forward we may switch to plastic.
“We will keep an eye on these much-loved assets that ‘bridge’ the two sides of the town with a view to ensure that these links are never lost due to decay.”
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