Dumbarton Central Station Bridge which is being refurbished by Network Rail. Picture by David Tait.
Clean-up time for Dumbarton’s dank, dirty and dangerous railway bridges
By Bill Heaney
One of the darkest, dirtiest and most dangerous railway bridges around is being given a cleanup at last. It’s dark because the lighting is inadequate. It’s dangerous because you can’t see pedestrians standing at the traffic lights and it’s dirty because of foul smelling rain water contaminated by dirt and bird droppings falling on people below. This is Dumbarton Central Station Bridge of course at the point which used to be the main entrance to the station. Campaigners such as Rose Harvie and members of the local community councils have been trying to get the bridge upgraded for decades. Network Rail, who were in Dumbarton only recently replacing the Bonhill Road/Strathleven Place bridge, are carrying out the work which includes repairs to the metalwork. The bridge will be encased in scaffolding and then “we’ll blast of the old paint, assess the metal, carry-out any required repairs and then repaint the structure,” according to a spokesman for Network Rail. He added: “We’re spending around £1.2 million refurbishing and repainting this bridge and the one at College Street (locally known as The Dark Erch) near present entrance to station, across the road from the old Railway Tavern. A guesstimate of the time the work will take to complete is three months or 12 weeks.