Emergency Kirkcudbright Bridge closure cuts town in two | UK News

A road bridge in southern Scotland has been closed to all traffic at short notice after engineers issued a safety warning.

The Kirkcudbright Bridge is shut to vehicles until further notice, leaving drivers in one residential area cut off from the rest of the Dumfries and Galloway town.

A diversion is in place but people living in the Merse area, on the western side of the River Dee, now face a six-mile drive on country roads to get into the town centre.

The 99-year-old concrete bridge, which had previously had a weight limit for vehicles, remains open to pedestrians and cyclists.

Dumfries and Galloway Council announced late on Friday afternoon that the bridge would be shut to vehicles from 19:00.

The council said the decision was taken for safety reasons following an inspection earlier in the day by structural engineers.

“We fully appreciate the inconvenience this closure may cause and are engaging with the local community and partners – including emergency services and transport providers – to minimise disruption during this closure,” it said.

The bridge was constructed in 1926, replacing a Victorian bridge built in 1868, and provides a direct route west out of Kirkcudbright.

Earlier this year, a 7.5 tonne weight limit was imposed because of reports of heavy vehicles regularly breaching the previous 17-tonne limit.

That caused difficulties to farmers who were unable to take fully-laden trailers across the bridge.

There have been concerns about its structural integrity for many years, and a Tripadvisor review a year ago warned: “I felt like the bridge was going to collapse”.

Drivers will now have to use the Tongland Bridge, built by the famous engineer Thomas Telford in 1808, which is further north.

Dumfries and Galloway Council said it would issue a further update on the bridge closure in the coming days.