Thursday 16 June saw representatives from the National Railway Heritage Awards, National Highways, Balfour Beatty and the engineers Jacobs head to Bonnington in Lanarkshire, on the long closed line from Lanark to Auchinleck via Douglas and Muirkirk, where the plaque awarded to National Highways at the 2025 National Railway Heritage Awards was formally unveiled.
The road overbridge, which last saw a train pass under it more than 60 years ago, was the subject of a major restoration project in 2024. The work, which required careful treatment of both the cast-iron elements and the stone- and brickwork, saw the project awarded the NRHA award for the best restored structure on a closed railway line at the award ceremony held in London in early December 2025.
The unveiled plaque at Bonnington with, from left, Tom Lees, site manager from Balfour Beatty, Robert Robertson, from Balfour Beatty, Chris Doig, from Jacobs engineering, Colin McNicol, from National Highways, and Tim Hedley-Jones, NRHA trustee and Director of the Railway Heritage Trust.
The restored bridge at Bonnington. The skewed cast-iron bridge with its stone abutments was built for the Caledonian Railway’s extension from Douglas to Muirkirk that opened in January 1873. The railway line closed completely in 1965 but the bridge is on the only highway route to the Bonnington Hydro-electric Power Station and is required to carry heavy vehicles. Although it would have been simpler – and cheaper – to have replaced the bridge, National Highways undertook the complex restoration of the Category B listed bridge in 2024. The success of the project saw the work rewarded with the NRHA award for the best restoration on a closed railway line.