Almost two years to the day since the Selby train tragedy, the Government has finally moved to ensure the road bridges which cross Britain's rail tracks are safe.

Gavin Engelbrecht reports on the long journey which began in February

HIGHWAYS chiefs and rail bosses last night welcomed the breaking of the deadlock over funding vital repairs to road bridges over railways - and they have vowed to accelerate work still needed.

Since the Selby disaster local authorities pressed ahead with repairs to bridges requiring the most urgent attention, agreeing to pay for repairs and then look to recoup the money at a later date.

But work on many bridges had to be put on hold pending a resolution to the cash row.

Under the new protocol, the cost of engineering works will be shared by highway authorities and Network Rail on a 50:50 basis.

Another key element to the new national guidelines is a risk assessment ranking system, first developed by Durham County Council, in consultation with North Yorkshire County Council, Railtrack Eastern region and the Health and Safety Executive.

The Durham authority hosted a national workshop to consider the preliminary results from selected trials of the system in December 2001, and, two months later, draft versions of it were issued to members of the County Surveyors' Society. These served as a stop-gap measure until the Government's guidance pack became available.

Since then, the council has been represented on Department for Transport working groups looking into the problem and tasked with drawing up national guidance.

In light of refinements to the draft risk assessment tool contained in new guidance, the county council has already re-examined road-over-rail bridges in the county and has identified a further three which require upgrading - at Bradbury, Ricknall Lane and Hett Lane, all over the East Coast Main Line.

These are on top of improvements already carried out to four bridges at a cost of about £100,000.

Council leader Councillor Ken Manton said the schemes were being drawn up to allow work to begin on the bridges this spring.

He said: "I am delighted that Durham's lead in tackling this problem has been recognised.

"Clearly our risk ranking tool was seen as a good base from which to start developing the national guidance, which has been published today, and which includes one of our improvement schemes - on the B6300 Brownley Lane, over the East Coast Main Line - as an example.

"We acted quickly and effectively in seeking to address the sort of issues which could have led to a repeat of the Selby rail crash.

"I believe this national guidance pack will help make our roads and railways safer for everyone."

In the Darlington area, eight bridges have been identified as needing urgent repair.

Work on three considered to be high priorities - at Brafferton Mill, Brafferton and Salters Lane North - is under way, at a cost of £60,000, and is due to be completed by the end of March.

Repairs to bridges assessed as medium priority will be carried out over the following 12 months.

In North Yorkshire, engineers have completed work estimated to have cost £250,000 on bridges considered to be the greatest risk - at Daltons, Danby Wiske, Thirsk and Thorpefield, near Thirsk.

A contract to complete another five sites has been awarded and is ongoing.

In association with Network Rail, the authority has carried out safety assessment at each of the 134 road- over-rail bridges in the county. Twenty-five of these will require improvements.

The council has made a bid for £1.5m of Government cash to complete the work over the next four years