PIONEERING research by a North-East university into ways to make Britain's crumbling road bridges safer is to be presented to an international conference next week.

After eight years of painstaking work, experts at the University of Teesside have completed tests on a new method of reinforcing masonry and brick parapets - reducing the potential for another Selby-type disaster.

The project headed by Professor Brian Hobbs, director of the science and technology school, and research engineer Peter Newton, saw steel and fibre composite reinforcements used to significantly strengthen parapets, without ruining their appearance.

The system has undergone rigorous testing at a rig in the university's heavy structures laboratory, in Middlesbrough, with the scientists' reinforced walls withstanding the equivalent of being struck by cars travelling at up to 70mph.

Following its success in the laboratory, the project team will present its findings at Imperial College, London, before hopefully going on to work with companies to get its system adopted across the country.

The strengthening material could be drilled into existing parapets - many of which date back to the 19th Century - without even closing railway lines.

Prof Hobbs said: "We believe this is the most effective way of reinforcing these parapets. The system we have developed would generate a large improvement in performance. Our team has more understanding of brick parapets than anyone else in the world."

Officials from North Yorkshire County Council, which is investing heavily in improving railway bridges, are taking a big interest in the work and have visited the university to see it in progress.

"This started as a scientific investigation but it now has major safety implications, post-Selby," said Prof Hobbs.

The Government-backed work on Teesside has received about £500,000 in funding and has the backing of Railtrack and London Underground.

The Northern Echo has long campaigned for repairs to road-over-rail bridges, with the need for improvements highlighted at Howden, East Yorkshire, last month when two lorries were left hanging perilously over a railway line.

The debris, which showered the Hull to Selby line, backed up the project team's assertion that parapets are unable to withstand the impact of a heavy goods vehicle