16 1GM Thursday December 3 2020 | the times
News
this information should be withheld,
before withdrawing its case.
Under Highways England guide-
lines, structures must undergo a gener-
al inspection every two years, and a
more detailed inspection typically
every six years. However, the figures
released under FOI show that the
company had exceeded this two-year
target for 2,000 bridges and other
structures, of which 400 had key sec-
tions in poor or very poor condition.
In all, the figures showed that 4,331 of
about 19,000 bridges and other struc-
tures, including retaining walls, masts
and gantries, had critical elements that
were rated as poor and a further 1,
were “very poor” in April last year.
The issue also affects councils. Re-
search this year by the RAC Founda-
tion found there were 3,061 substan-
dard bridges on local roads. The charity
estimated that the authorities faced a
£5.5 billion backlog to repair bridges.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC
Foundation, said: “It is a reminder that
whilst potholes are a very visible
reminder of the need for adequate road
maintenance funding, more subtle
cracks and fissures potentially pose a
much greater risk.”
Mike Wilson, Highways England
chief highways engineer, said: “All our
structures are safe and regularly in-
spected. A rating of ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’
does not mean that a structure is un-
safe; it is simply a way of recording a
visual inspection, such as the condition
of the paint, to allow us to consider the
future maintenance requirements.”
Glynn Barton, TfL director of net-
work management, said: “We would al-
ways take the appropriate action to
keep people safe if our inspections indi-
cated this was necessary, which in-
cludes restricting traffic.”spite similar information on bridges
being freely available in countries such
as the US as well as concern in light of
the disaster in Genoa, Italy, where a
bridge collapse killed 43 people in 2018.
The information commissioner, the
official regulator, found that Highways
England’s arguments were baseless and
ordered release. The disclosure was de-
layed by a further two months because
the company tried to get a judge to ruleinfrastructure is in such poor condition.
Bridges are a critical part of the func-
tioning of any country and it is alarm-
ing that so many have fallen into disre-
pair in the UK.”
The Times submitted a request to
Highways England for information on
the state of bridges in March last year.
Highways England tried to block the
release on the basis that it could help
terrorists carry out an attack. This is de-Behind the story
T
he troubling
state of
England’s road
infrastructure
was revealed only
after an 18-month
freedom of
information battle
that ended in
court (George
Greenwood writes).
The Times made a
request to Highways
England for details
of the conditions
of its bridges and
other structures in
March last year.
The department
refused to provide the
information, claiming
that motorway
bridges would be at
greater risk of
terrorist attack.
It also argued that
publishing the details
would leave them at
the mercy of metal
thieves. The refusalwas taken on appeal
to the information
commissioner, who
regulates freedom
of information. She
ruled that it was
“unlikely that
national security or
public safety could be
undermined by
releasing this
information, without
more persuasive
argument to suggest
otherwise”, and
ordered the company
to release the
database in July.
Despite this order,
Highways England
challenged the
commissioner’s
decision by asking a
judge to overrule her.
This delayed release
by two more months.
Highways England
relented and
withdrew its appeal,
releasing the databaseto The Times last
month.
The Freedom of
Information Act itself
has been in the
headlines over
concern that its role
in holding the
powerful to account
is being undermined.
The Cabinet Office
has been accused
of running an
“Orwellian” system
that screens
information requests
across Whitehall,
after the news site
Open Democracy
found that FOI
requests by journalists
were being reviewed
centrally. This
prompted concerns
that sensitive requests
could be blocked and
that one of the act’s
key principles of
neutrality was being
undermined.Almost half of bridges on England’s
busiest roads have key sections in a
poor or very poor condition, prompting
concern over traffic chaos while repairs
are made.
An investigation by The Times found
that 4,000 of about 9,000 bridges and
large culverts on motorways or A-roads
showed evidence of defects or damage
that may significantly affect capacity.
Figures obtained under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act from High-
ways England showed that 858 struc-
tures had at least one load-bearing or
otherwise crucial section in “very poor
condition” as of April last year.
Fourteen bridges and culverts were
given the worst score of zero.
According to official guidance, sec-
tions deemed to be “very poor” are at
risk of failure, with the possible imple-
mentation of weight restrictions and
other measures to limit more damage.
In the case of bridges, this could mean
reducing traffic to a single lane and a
ban on heavy vehicles.
In all, there were 141 bridges with
very poor parts on the M6. A further 90
were given the lowest rating on the M1,
51 on the M62 and 50 on the M5.
Highways England tried to keep the
data secret and released it only after an
18-month battle.
A separate disclosure by Transport
for London (TfL) shows that about 200
of the 500 bridges and other structures
it maintains in the capital also had key
sections in poor or very poor condition.
There has been extensive criticism of
the condition of Hammersmith Bridge
in west London, which has been shut
George Greenwood
Graeme Paton Transport Correspondent
Beta blockers may prevent return of dormant cancer cells
Repairs to Hammersmith Bridge could take six years. Top left, scaffolding beneath Oldbury viaduct is reflected in a canalTOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS; PETER LOPEMAN/ALAMYEngland’s bridges
are falling down,
secret data shows
after concern about its integrity, follow-
ing years of disagreement between the
local council, TfL and the Department
for Transport on who should pay for
repairs.
The bridge was closed to cars in April
last year after engineers found micro-
fractures, a consequence of decades of
unchecked corrosion, and shut to
cyclists and pedestrians last August. It
could take six years to repair, leading to
a ban on river traffic below the bridge.
This means the Oxford-Cambridge
boat race could be moved off the
Thames for the second time in history.
Motorway bridges have also been af-
fected. In January disruptive lane clo-
sures and speed restrictions were lifted
on the Oldbury viaduct on the M5 in
the West Midlands after a three-year
scheme, the biggest of its kind carried
out in Britain. Repairs to the affected
section, which carries 60,000 vehicles a
day, were supposed to take 18 months.
Speed limits and overnight closures
were also imposed on the M62’s Ouse
bridge near Goole, East Yorkshire, for a
year while bearings were replaced. The
work finished ahead of schedule.
Separate figures from Highways
England last month showed that there
were 95 structures subject to “interim
measures” to keep them safe. This
includes weight or lane restrictions.
Highways England insisted that a
rating of “poor” or “very poor” did not
mean a structure was unsafe, pointing
out that the overall condition of struc-
tures had improved. It also said that
£1.5 billion had been set aside for main-
tenance up until 2025, a £200 million
increase on previous five-year periods.
However, Matt Rodda, the shadow
roads minister, said: “It is a major safety
concern and real failing of this govern-
ment that so much of the nation’s vitalScientists are exploring whether exist-
ing drugs can be used to keep cancer at
bay after discovering that stress hor-
mones can reactivate the disease years
after it appears to have been beaten.
Research suggests that stress hor-
mones can set off a cascading set of
immune system responses. These can
result in the revival of “sleeping” cancer
cells, which can lie dormant in the body
for years after evading treatments such
as chemotherapy. The scientists believe
that drugs that dampen the hormones,
known as beta blockers, could be effec-
tive in preventing tumours from re-
turning, keeping patients in remission.
This treatment is now being tested in an
early-stage clinical trial.
“We believe this can be relevant to
any type of cancer where the phenome-
non of dormancy is an important mech-
anism of tumour recurrence,” Dmitry
Gabrilovich, chief scientist of cancer im-
munology at the drugmaker Astrazene-ca and one of the leaders of the study,
said. “Currently, this is a very long list
that includes lung, breast, colon, ovari-
an, prostate, and many other cancers.”
Recurrent tumours that have spread
from the original site to new parts of the
body are the leading cause of disease-
related death among cancer patients, a
recent paper reported.
The scientists in the new study, which
was published yesterday in the journal
Science Translational Medicine, first
discovered that stress hormones suchas norepinephrine reactivated dormant
lung and ovarian cancer cells in mice.
Next they looked at samples of blood
serum from 80 patients who had under-
gone surgery to have lung tumours
removed. They found that some
patients had higher levels of a com-
pound known as S100A8/A9, which is
released by white blood cells when
levels of stress hormones are elevated.
In the mice it had been S100A8/A9 in
particular that had appeared to prompt
dormant cancer cells to reawaken. Theresearchers also found that patients
with higher levels of the compound
were more likely to have experienced
recurrence of their cancer 33 months
after surgery.
Beta blockers may not be suitable for
all patients, Dr Gabrilovich said. He
believes that it may be more useful to
develop medicines that target the com-
pound. He added: “This may be the next
thing in drug development... my dream
is to have something testable in patients
in a couple of years.”Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent
times investigation