Looking after the Lake District one bridge at a time

Our rangers work tirelessly all year round to look after the Lake District National Park, including maintaining footpaths, building dry-stone walls, and replacing damaged bridges and boardwalks. It’s currently bridge season for a lot of our rangers - a total of 16 bridges will be replaced or repaired with new ones as well as improving access for wheelchairs.

A recent project in the southern Lake District is the boardwalk at Hay Bridge Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and forms part of Rusland Moss SSSI.

A team effort at Hay Bridge Nature Reserve

Funding was received from the Defra Access for All fund to replace the old boardwalk at the Nature Reserve. After several delays due to the wet weather, and reduced capacity, the team had a successful few weeks working at Hay Bridge Nature Reserve.

The work was a real team effort led by Ray, one of our western rangers, with support from the rest of the western team and members of the central and northern team. They have removed several sections of broken and damaged wooden boardwalk on the main footpath leading to the National Nature Reserve. The old boardwalk has been replaced with 150m of recycled plastic boardwalk, which will reduce maintenance costs and result in a longer lifespan. The boardwalk has also been designed to be more accessible, it is now 1.2m wide with a turning area at the end of the new section.

In addition to the boardwalk the team has also replaced the old narrow wooden footbridge at the beginning of the footpath with a new wider bridge that has steel beams, recycled plastic decking and timber handrails.

We are now seeking funding to install the next 400m of boardwalk that will provide a link to the National Nature Reserve.

Coast to Coast improvements

The central ranger team have been busy on the Coast to Coast  putting in a new bridge at Tongue Gill, Grasmere. For more information on Wainwright's Coast to Coast improvement project visit our webpage.