ONE of the final structures made at the region's historic Cleveland Bridge manufacturer left its factory on Tuesday.
A 133-tonne vehicle carrying 50-metre long bridge beams left the Yarm Road premises at 2pm on Tuesday and made its way towards a new bridge at junction 10 of the M6 in the West Midlands.
Motorists across the North East were warned to allow extra travelling time as the abnormal load passed through the region.
After leaving Darlington, it was set to travel along the A66 and south on the A1 before joining the eastbound M62 at junction 32A (Ferrybridge).
Clearly signed diversions were in place and the roads reopened as soon as possible after the abnormal load completed its manoeuvres.
Cleveland Bridge is renowned over the world for its iconic structures - from the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Wembley Arch - but is set to close in the coming weeks due to financial difficulties.
Workers inside the factory are still finishing the last packages of work that was already on the books at the site and it is presumed that in the next few days that will end after perhaps a few more truckloads and and an auction will be arranged for site and assets.
Read more: REVEALED: Darlington's Cleveland Bridge OWED £21m before collapse
The scale of the disastrous crash was only revealed last week, when official documents told of debts totalling more than £21million, made up of 264 separate claims, including £6million to the Arab National Bank, £3million to HMRC, more than £2million for financing company 4Syte and £2million to UK Export Finance.
The pandemic, which cost the already-crippled company more than £1.7m, was one of the key reasons for the closure, as overseas projects became unworkable and management struggled to cope.
As the need for overtime working and agency staff grew as the delayed contracts all started again there was a fatal impact on margins already stretched to the limits.
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