REASONS have been provided on why a Denbighshire bridge has yet to be replaced more than two years after it collapsed.
Llanerch Bridge, which provided a crossing over the River Clwyd between Trefnant and Tremeirchion, and was used as a route to the A55, collapsed back on January 21, 2021.
Residents have had to drive seven miles around the river since the damage caused by Storm Christoph.
A meeting was recently held at the White House, in Rhuallt, to give an update on the situation with the bridge.
Denbighshire County Council senior engineer Jim Hall addressed the meeting with an update.
Mr Hall said there was no new bridge at the site yet as planning permission was required, in addition to obtaining support from Natural Resources Wales.
Tremeirchion councillor Chris Evans and Trefnant councillor James Elson, who organised the meeting, have previously made calls for a temporary structure to be put in place.
However, Mr Hall explained that new foundations would be needed for this and putting a temporary bridge at the site would mean building foundations twice.
As a result, costs would increase over the period in the long term and the temporary structure would be redundant work as it would only be there a few years.
Mr Hall said considerations were made regarding a floating pontoon bridge where no structure is needed, but when the river level goes down, this would cause the floating pontoon to rest on the river bed, meaning it would probably burst and not be reliable.
Stage one would see the use of a Denbighshire budget of £350,000 on optioneering, with Mr Hall saying this would build a plausible programme for planning permission.
Further funding, not yet in place, would be needed for stage two, he added.
During this stage, the structure design will be completed, the details confirmed and the hope is everything else would, leading to the final stage the construction phase
The construction will take place in the river during the summer months.
The current estimate for the completed work is £8.22 million, he said, which would be finished by early 2026.
Understandably, Denbighshire County Council is looking for the new road to be more resilient and the consideration is for a single span bridge, possibly three times longer than the previous structure.
Cllr Chris Evans said: "As the meeting and the protest showed, the Llannerch bridge is a very much needed link not just for commuting but for blue light services, farming with the cost of fuel as it is, deliveries of medication and prescriptions to older members of the villages, care givers who are all ready pushed to breaking point with time in their days to visit residents, and the roads in the surrounding areas not been able to cope with the traffic as well as bottlenecking in St Asaph.
"But there has been a lack of information passed on to residents about where Denbighshire is up to with the process of the bridge with planning, funding and building of the bridge.
"Residents just want more dialogue between Denbighshire County Council and themselves which I and many others in the meeting put across and Denbighshire officers have said they will take it on board."
A spokesperson for Denbighsire County Council said the spring newsletter to update residents on the bridge situation will be produced in early April.
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