The Cowes Floating Bridge will once again be out of action tomorrow (Thursday), this time to allow essential maintenance to be completed.
It was just a week ago that the East Cowes to Cowes service was brought to a halt due to a technical issue with the west prow. The floating bridge was then suspended again on Tuesday owing to a hydraulic leak.
Now, the Isle of Wight Council has announced that the troubled vessel will be pulled from service between 09:30-15:30 to enable work to the chain ferry’s hydraulic pipes – despite the hydraulic system being completely overhauled in 2020.
The all too familiar foot passenger launch will be in operation.
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Council has said:
“Essential modifications to the Cowes floating bridge will see a replacement launch service brought in tomorrow (Thursday).
“The temporary launch service for foot passengers and cyclists will be in place between 9.30am and 3.30pm.
“The maintenance concerns the vessel’s hydraulic pipes which cannot be accessed when the vessel is in the water. The timing of these works is dependent upon the tides.
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Wow that lasted a long time (hahaha lol)
Just going to contact the Royal Navy the new iow monument needs blowing up ****
Vote this co uncil OUT next given chance, and NOT ‘just’ because of this long winded saga. This is NOTHING compared to the full scale destruction of our beautiful countryside which is not just like this temporary, but ruined until the end of time.
They need to go, as as soon as.
Save a lot of hours work on repeated story about this expensive lump of junk and just tell people when it is most likely to actually work!
This is an expensive lump of worthless junk and needs to be sunk in the Solent ASAP.
What’s the betting it will be out of service for longer, give it a week and be out of action again as the water is to wet
the headline is wrong..should just say…
FLOATING BRIDGE WON’T BE RUNNING.
Is that true, it’s been designed so that there is no access to some of the hydraulic pipe work unless the vessel is out of the water? I don’t believe that.
if it is true however, then the design and build should be fully investigated as that is just not acceptable. What is really going on?
Has anybody got the build plans? I can’t see why they would be any reason to keep them secret.
In my time in the Solomon Islands our 2 landing craft operated 365 days without troubles, Hydraulic hoses were replaced within hours.The staff were local with basic education but they could do repairs on the spot.May be we have the wrong type of vessel?