This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A bridge in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, has reopened more than a year after its partial collapse came to symbolise the destruction of the 2015 Christmas floods.



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The 18th-century Grade II-listed structure crumbled on 29 December 2015 after the river Wharfe rose to historic levels.

Its collapse came as flooding hit large parts of northern England, leaving many communities under several feet of water.

The loss of the bridge, which had been closed to traffic due to safety concerns, left the North Yorkshire town divided, with residents and visitors having to negotiate a 10-mile detour to get from one side of the river to the other.

The division has strained businesses in the town. North Yorkshire county council said contractors worked around the clock to complete a job that should have taken two years in just over 12 months.

On Friday, the town’s primary school children walked across the bridge en masse to mark the opening. One of them, Lydia Jackson, from St Joseph’s Catholic primary school, cut the ceremonial ribbon, flanked by the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, and the local Tory MP Nigel Adams.

“There is great anticipation in the town,” said Don Mackenzie, the council’s executive member for highways. “Its community has been literally cut in two for a year by the bridge’s collapse and people have been eagerly looking forward to the time when they will be reconnected. We thank them for the patience and fortitude they have shown throughout the year.

“I am very proud of the enormous effort made by our contractors, Balfour Beatty, and our bridges team to complete a very challenging project of this kind in little more than half the time it would normally take.”

The reconstruction, which has included a widening of the structure, has been funded with £3m from the government and £1.4m from the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reconstruction work on the 18th-century bridge in Tadcaster. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

North Yorkshire county council said during the peak of the 2015 storms more than 650 tonnes of water was hitting the bridge every second – the highest flow rate recorded in 30 years.

The Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, Greg Clark, was filmed walking across the bridge hours before its collapse.