A MAIN route into Broadway has been reopened after a 12 week closure a few days ahead of schedule.

Station Road in the village was closed as work was carried out on the over a century-old railway bridge, which will one day see the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway’s trains running across it as they travel between Cheltenham and Broadway again.

The project has cost around £250,000 and was completed on Monday, September 8.

A total of five bridges will be repaired between Laverton and Broadway as the further two mile route into the village is reinstated but this is the largest of the bridges.

The repairs are being funded by a special Bridges to Broadway share offer to raise £500,000.

The first vehicle to run under the refurbished bridge was an ambulance on an emergency call.

Alan Bielby, chairman of GWSR, said: "This has been one of the biggest engineering tasks that the railway has faced.

"The work involved replacement of a huge amount of steelwork which had both corroded and had been damaged following strikes from lorries taller than the 14ft 3ins headroom over many years.

"There was significantly more work than anticipated and our contractors, George Law Ltd and their sub-contractors, have done a fantastic job in getting the work finished ahead of programme to the point that we were able to reopen the road on Monday."

While the work was being carried out, traffic using the B4632 Evesham Road, Station Road was diverted via Childswickham Road.

The next bridge to be overhauled crosses Childswickham Road and as a result, this road will be closed to vehicular traffic from September 15 for no more than eight weeks.

One other bridge, at Little Buckland, is also subject to major works and involving significant rebuilding and strengthening of the brick abutments as well as repairs to corroded steelwork. Two other small bridges have required relatively little work to bring them back into good condition.

Mr Bielby added: "We are hugely indebted not just to railway enthusiasts who are interested in seeing our railway succeed but to local people too, who have invested money so they can see trains running into their station once again, after more than half-a-century.

"A prospectus can be downloaded from the railway’s website at gwsr.com or telephone 01242 621 905 for a copy."

“There is still plenty of work to do including work on the embankments, drainage, fencing as well as laying ballast and track."