The London Borough of Redbridge has many bridges throughout the Borough carrying the public highway over different obstacles such as rivers, railways and motorways. Some small rivers are carried via buried culverts (totally enclosed water channels) and so you may not even notice that you are crossing a highway structure in this case.

There are typically several different bridge owners responsible for assessment and maintenance such as:

The Council is the Highway Authority and the 'Bridge Authority' for the bridges owned by the Council. The Council owns and is responsible for more than 50 highway bridges.

The Highway Agency - bridges on the A406 or A12 trunk roads and motorway network through the Borough.

Railtrack - generally older bridges carrying the highway over or under the railway lines.

British Rail Property Board (disused railways) - there are 3 of these in Redbridge.

Environment Agency - carries the highway over main rivers such as the River Roding.

In general the bridge usually belongs to the organisation (or its successor) that had cause to need the bridge in the first place. Ownership of bridges has been transferred in some cases, such as when the responsibility for a route changes.

The Council's bridges are inspected superficially every 6 months with a full General Inspection every 2 years and Principal Inspection every 6 years when a programme of maintenance work is drawn up. The Principal Inspection is the most detailed requiring access equipment to get within touching distance of all parts of the bridge.

Incidents of damage through vehicle collision, storm damage, or other causes are investigated as soon as possible with risk assessments carried out to ensure that public safety is maintained. In the case of damage to bridges by vehicles, reporting of the vehicle details may mean it is possible for the Council to claim the cost of the repairs to the bridge or culvert although this can be difficult and time consuming to achieve a satisfactory result.