By Julie Armstrong

Last updated 14:03, Wednesday, 26 March 2008

MEN suspended on ropes are checking the condition beneath the 100ft-high Wetheral Viaduct.

• Video Watch the workers in action

Workers lower themselves over the Wetheral Viaduct

Access between Wetheral train station and Great Corby is cut off over the next three days as an inspection of the footbridge is carried out.

Curious passers-by looked up from the riverbank yesterday as rope access technicians attached themselves to 200kg of weights, climbed over the cast iron hand rail and swung themselves down using low-stretch ropes and shunts.

Hanging under the 100ft-high listed structure, they took photos of the underside, while trains continued to pass by at speed on the other side of the wall.

The technicians carrying out the work, from CAN Ltd, are the same men who helped to put the fabric on the Millennium Dome. Their visual inspection of Wetheral’s 600ft-long footbridge started yesterday and is scheduled to take four days.

Speaking on behalf of the county council’s Cumbria Highways, civil engineer Kevin Crawley said: “One requirement of building now is you have to consider how it’s to be maintained in the future, but that wouldn’t have been done when this bridge was built in 1850.

“We can look at the top easily enough and Network Rail do their own inspections, but it’s been a while since the underneath was looked at.

“A special bus service will be put on in the morning and evening to gain access to public transport. There will also be one at Thursday lunchtime for people to pick up their pensions and so on from the post office.”

The rope access technicians must wear orange high visibility overalls so that they don’t confuse train drivers with a red or green light signal. They say that in some situations they need to keep a lookout in case someone with a knife tried to cut the rope.

CAN Ltd site supervisor said: “I’m a climber and climbers and cavers think it must be great getting paid to do what you love, but when it’s 7am on a construction site and the rain is pelting sidewards, it soon loses its novelty.”

Highways hope that Wetheral’s bridge will be ready to reopen on Saturday.

See a video of the work on our new-look website at www.newsandstar.co.uk