Bridge Inspections, Intervals and Extension Approvals
Case reference EIR2026/01413
Received 17 June 2026
Published 16 July 2026
Request
For every highway structure within your authority's inventory, please provide the following, ideally as a single spreadsheet with one row per structure:
1. a) The structure name and unique identifier or reference number.
1. b) The asset type (for example, bridge, culvert, retaining wall, or footbridge) and the span or length, where held.
1. c) Confirmation of ownership and maintenance responsibility (i.e. whether the structure is maintained by your authority, a third party, or held under a Rights of Way designation), so that responsibility for each structure is unambiguous.
1. d) The date of the most recent General Inspection.
1. e) The date of the most recent Principal Inspection.
1. f) The scheduled date of the next Principal Inspection.
1. g) The inspection interval currently applied to the structure, in years, and whether this is the standard six-year interval under CS450 and the Well-managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice, or an extended interval.
2. For any structure where the Principal Inspection interval has been extended to ten years or more under a risk-based assessment, please provide, for that structure individually rather than as a general policy statement:
2. a) The date on which the extension was approved.
2. b) The role or team responsible for approving the extension (for example, Principal Engineer or the Bridges and Structures Team), without needing the name of the individual officer.
2. c) The methodology or criteria used to justify the extension under your risk-based assessment process.
3. The date on which your authority's current risk-based variable interval policy (if you operate one) came into force, and what governed Principal Inspection intervals for structures last inspected before that date.
4. Confirmation of whether this disclosure represents your authority's complete inventory of highway structures, or whether any structures, or any historical inspection records, are held separately (for example in a legacy asset management system not reflected in this return).
5. Confirmation of whether any dates in the disclosed data are system defaults, placeholders, or otherwise not genuine inspection dates, and if so, which records these affect.
Response
I am writing to request information concerning the inspection of highway structures (bridges, culverts, and similar structures) maintained by your authority.
For every highway structure within your authority's inventory, please provide the following, ideally as a single spreadsheet with one row per structure:
1. a) The structure name and unique identifier or reference number.
Answer: Please see attached CSV sheets.
1. b) The asset type (for example, bridge, culvert, retaining wall, or footbridge) and the span or length, where held.
Answer: Please see attached CSV sheets.
1. c) Confirmation of ownership and maintenance responsibility (i.e. whether the structure is maintained by your authority, a third party, or held under a Rights of Way designation), so that responsibility for each structure is unambiguous. Answer: Please see attached CSV sheets.
1. d) The date of the most recent General Inspection.
Answer: Please see attached CSV sheets.
1. e) The date of the most recent Principal Inspection.
Answer: Please see attached CSV sheets.
1. f) The scheduled date of the next Principal Inspection.
Answer: Please see attached CSV sheets.
1. g) The inspection interval currently applied to the structure, in years, and whether this is the standard six-year interval under CS450 and the Well-managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice, or an extended interval.
Answer: General Inspection every 2 years, Principal Inspections every 6 years.
2. For any structure where the Principal Inspection interval has been extended to ten years or more under a risk-based assessment, please provide, for that structure individually rather than as a general policy statement:
Answer: This is not applicable. To clarify we do not have a risk based assessment policy to extend the frequency of principal bridge inspections to ten years.
2. a) The date on which the extension was approved.
Answer: This is not applicable.
2. b) The role or team responsible for approving the extension (for example, Principal Engineer or the Bridges and Structures Team), without needing the name of the individual officer.
Answer: This is not applicable.
2. c) The methodology or criteria used to justify the extension under your risk-based assessment process.
Answer: This is not applicable.
3. The date on which your authority's current risk-based variable interval policy (if you operate one) came into force, and what governed Principal Inspection intervals for structures last inspected before that date.
Answer: This is not applicable.
4. Confirmation of whether this disclosure represents your authority's complete inventory of highway structures, or whether any structures, or any historical inspection records, are held separately (for example in a legacy asset management system not reflected in this return).
Answer: Historical paper records may also exist for some structures in the Modern Records Units or County Archives.
5. Confirmation of whether any dates in the disclosed data are system defaults, placeholders, or otherwise not genuine inspection dates, and if so, which records these affect.
Answer: All the dates of completed inspections are the actual dates of the work being completed. All the dates of future inspections are placeholders.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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