Temporary road will be built after bridge on Yorkshire World Championships course was ‘blown apart’ by debris

A temporary road will be built to replace a bridge on the Yorkshire 2019 World Championship course that was ‘blown apart’ by flooding.

The bridge on Grinton Moor is part of a key climb for the men’s road race taking place in late September, but the road was severely damaged when extreme weather struck North Yorkshire last week.

A rush of water in the stream below on Tuesday, July 30 caused part of the bridge to collapse before it was completely washed away by the storms.

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North Yorkshire County Council has been working to assess the damage and has now confirmed that a temporary road will be built to allow traffic to pass, with the bridge to be repaired at a later date.

Corporate director for business and environmental services at the council, David Bowe, said: “The most obvious problems is the collapse of the bridge on Grinton Moor that connects Grinton to Leyburn. A huge head of water came down the valley carrying a massive amount of debris, effectively blowing the bridge apart.

“To the side of the bridge, we are going to build a temporary road, which will allow traffic to bypass the existing structure.”

The council say the contractor will start work on Monday (August 5) and that the temporary road is expected to be open by August 30, but work to repair the bridge will not start until spring.

Grinton Moor is one of the key climbs on the 285km-long men’s Worlds road race course, sitting just after the 120km mark.

North Yorkshire Country Council has been dealing with incidents across the region after the extreme weather last week caused landslides and damage to buildings, including the collapse of a pub wall.

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The recent weather also forced organisers to cancel the mountain bike event Ard Rock Enduro Festival 2019 in Yorkshire, as flash flooding affected the site.

A picture of the damage to Grinton Moor Bridge first appeared on social media on Tuesday, where the road surface had fallen away into the streams below.

Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team posted a picture of the damaged bridge as they were being called out to assist residents during the flooding.