REPAIRING the pedestrian bridge at Petersfield station is to go ahead in the new year, Network Rail has said.

The cast iron bridge with wooden stair treads was suddenly closed, weeks after an inspection found the treads were rotten.

It was hoped the repairs would be done straight away, but Network Rail said it had to book the project into a programme of repairs, to be done when the rail line wasn’t at its busiest.

Now Mark Miller, of East Hampshire Community Rail Network, says the necessary engineering work is due to start at the beginning of the week of January 22, and take seven days to complete.

He said: “The timber of the steps and base of the footbridge is completely rotten, so it is thought replacing them with timber would mean that we would have the same problem again in less than 10 years’ time.

“So the proposed solution is to replace the wooden steps with steps made from glass reinforced plastic.

“As the bridge is within the station conservation area, Network Rail has had to get the approval of Hampshire County Council’s Heritage officer before doing this. Hence the delay.

“The new glass reinforced plastic steps are now on order and will be delivered to site before the work is due to start. Fingers crossed the bridge will be safer and brighter than ever early in the New Year.”

Network Rail says that unless anything else is discovered while work was being undertaken, the bridge could be repainted at the same time, he added.