Twin Sails closures caused by fault in control system (From Thisisdorset)
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Twin Sails closures caused by fault in control system
10:00am Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in Latest By Diana Henderson
CLOSED: The Twin Sails bridge malfunctions, leaving the road closed to traffic in both directions. Picture by Jon Beal
TWICE in three days Poole’s landmark bridge has ground to a halt, forcing disgruntled motorists to turn round and use the old lifting bridge.
Yesterday the £21.6 million Twin Sails Bridge failed to lift as scheduled at 11.30am and it was not operating again for two-and-a-half hours.
On Sunday the bridge was out of action for an hour and 45 minutes from 12.30pm, caused by the same fault.
“It’s really frustrating,” said rep Tim Frew, who was caught on the Hamworthy side trying to get back into Poole yesterday.
“Just when you are thinking it’s ‘yes’ and then it’s ‘oh no’.”
He waited in a queue of around 20 cars before he was told by a workman that the bridge was broken, and then turned and rushed to get over Poole Bridge before its scheduled lift. He said there were 10-15 cars waiting on the town side at the time.
Borough of Poole workmen coned off the Twin Sails Bridge Approach road, put up a “road closed” sign, the bridge road barriers were down and red warning lights flashed as yellow jacketed workmen were visible working underneath the bridge.
It is understood the fault is in the control system, telling the bridge to lift the triangular sails but stopping before it does. This leaves the barriers down across the road, and traffic unable to cross.
A Borough of Poole spokesman said: “The bridge reopened to traffic at around 2pm yesterday afternoon.
“It would appear a fault occurred with a control system associated with the bridge's lifting sequence.
“The council is working closely with its contractor to rectify the fault and a software engineer will be on-site today to carry out further investigations into the cause of the problem.
“We would like to apologise to road users and boat owners for any inconvenience which may have been caused by yesterday's temporary closure.”
Comments(8)
rudolph_hucker
says...
10:11am Wed 3 Oct 12
Couchy125
says...
10:50am Wed 3 Oct 12
freedom for pokesdown
says...
1:21pm Wed 3 Oct 12
And then start work on a new bridge somewhere on Poole quay - I suggest that 'works well as a bridge' should be somewhere high on the list of design aims
The-Bleeding-Obvious
says...
7:41am Thu 4 Oct 12
jobsworthwatch
says...
7:48am Thu 4 Oct 12
The-Bleeding-Obvious wrote:...'fault in the control system'...the 'control system' being Poole Borough Council?
Surely the fault is in the initial concept dreamt up by a bunch of non technical negative IQ councilors and jobsworths.
Yankee1
says...
11:41pm Thu 4 Oct 12
The good news is that this folly will entertain us for decades.
Iconic. Right.
paul.p
says...
11:30am Fri 5 Oct 12
While I wait for the answer lets all just sit in traffic and continue to be late for everything.
Reader Echo says...
9:42am Wed 3 Oct 12
I feel that a disaster meeting should be held immediately with competent engineers to discuss the way forward.
Poole council have made an epic disaster with this bridge from start to finish and are unfit for purpose.