Trunk Roads Act 1946

7 Transfer to Minister of private bridges carrying trunk roads

(1) On the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-six, every bridge to which this section applies by which any road which is or becomes a trunk road on that date is carried shall be transferred to the Minister; and where an order is made under section one of this Act directing that any road specified in the order shall become a trunk road, every such bridge as aforesaid by which that road is carried shall be transferred to the Minister on the date on which the road becomes a trunk road :

Provided that if on the date aforesaid any part of the road carried by such a bridge is not a trunk road, the bridge shall not be transferred to the Minister by virtue of this section unless and until that part becomes a trunk road.

(2) Where a bridge is- transferred to the Minister under this section then, subject as hereinafter provided, the bridge, including any building or structure comprised therein and the road carried thereby, shall by virtue of this section vest in the Minister for all the estate or interest of the owners therein, and thereupon—

(a) the bridge shall for all purposes become part of the trunk road; and

(b) notwithstanding anything in subsection (7) of section three of the principal Act, any liability of the owners for the improvement, .maintenance or repair of the bridge or the road shall be extinguished ; and

(c) any statutory provision in force, in relation to the bridge, for the protection or benefit of any statutory undertakers shall have effect, subject to any necessary modifications, as if for any reference therein to the owners of the bridge there were substituted a reference to the Minister:

Provided that the Minister and the owners may, by agreement in writing made either before or after the date on which the bridge is so transferred, agree that the provisions of this subsection with respect to the transfer of property shall not apply, or as the case may be shall be deemed not to have applied, to such property comprised in the bridge as may be specified in the agreement.

(3) In respect of any bridge which is transferred to the Minister under this section, the owners shall pay to the Minister such sum as may be agreed between them and the Minister or, in default of such agreement, such sum as may be determined by arbitration, to represent the value to the owners of the extinguishment of their liability under the last foregoing subsection, and the Minister shall pay the owners such sum as may be so agreed or determined to represent the value to the owners of the bridge as an asset productive of revenue.

(4) Any sum payable by the owners of a bridge to the Minister under the last foregoing subsection shall, in so far as it exceeds any sum payable by the Minister to the owners thereunder, be paid, at the option of the owners—

(a) as a lump sum; or

(b) by annual payments of such amount, and continuing for such number of years, as may be agreed between the owners and the Minister or, in default of agreement, determined by arbitration ; or

(c) by perpetual annual payments of such amount as may be so agreed or determined.

(5) Where any bridge transferred to the Minister under this section carries the road over any railway, canal, road or other works used for the purposes of any undertaking carried on by the owners, then, so long as those works are so used—

(a) the Minister shall before entering on any land of the owners for the purpose of executing any works for the maintenance, improvement or alteration of the bridge, give notice in writing to the owners specifying the general nature of the works proposed to be executed and

(b) except with the consent of the owners, the Minister shall not reduce the headway or spans of the bridge; and

(c) if the headway of the bridge is reduced in consequence of subsidence due to raining operations, or of any works carried out by the owners for the purpose of raising the railway, canal, road or other works to a level not higher than their level before the subsidence occurred, the Minister shall, if so required by the owners, raise the bridge so far as may be necessary to give the same headway as before the subsidence occurred:

Provided that any consent required for the execution of any works by the Minister under this subsection shall not be unreasonably withheld, and if any question arises whether or not it is unreasonably withheld that question shall be determined by arbitration.

(6) The purposes for which a compulsory purchase order may be made under section fourteen of the Act of 1935, as applied in relation to trunk roads by section four of the principal Act, shall include the execution of any works (other than the reconstruction of a bridge on a different site) for the maintenance, improvement or alteration of any bridge transferred to the Minister under this section, and in relation to any such order subsections (2) and (3) of the said section fourteen shall have effect as if any reference therein to the construction of a bridge or the approaches thereof included a reference to the reconstruction or alteratior of the bridge.

(7) Any dispute between the Minister and any authority or person as to the property or liabilities transferred under this section, or as to the liability of the Minister to carry out any works under this section, shall be determined by arbitration.

(8) For the purposes of subsection (3) of this section, a bridge shall not be treated as an asset productive of revenue unless at the time when the bridge is transferred under this section—

(a) a contract is in force under which payments have been made or will accrue to the owners in respect of the use of the bridge ; or

(b) the bridge includes any building constructed or adapted for use by the owners for the purposes of their undertaking or for letting to any other person.

(9) The bridges to which this section _applies are bridges, including viaducts, which carry the road over any railway or road, over any canal, river, water-course, marsh or other place where water flows or is collected, or over any ravine or other depression, not being—

(a) swing bridges ;

(b) bridges which carry a railway as well as the road ; or

(c) bridges to which a right to levy tolls is attached, or for the maintenance and repair of which any highway authority are responsible as such ;

and for the purposes of this section the expression " bridge '' includes the abutments and walls thereof and so much of the approaches thereto as carries the road, and the expression " owners," in relation to a bridge, means the persons who, immediately before the transfer of the bridge to the Minister, were responsible for the maintenance and repair thereof, and includes any person who, in pursuance of any agreement with the persons so responsible, were then discharging that responsibility on their behalf.

(10) Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting the provisions of section seven of the principal Act with respect to the transfer to the Minister, as part of a trunk road, of any bridge vested in the former highway authority.

(11) Where a road carried by a bridge transferred to the Minister under this section ceases to be a trunk road, the Minister may contribute towards the expenses incurred in the maintenance and repair of the bridge by the council who become the highway authority for the road.