Children have been developing their engineering skills and knowledge as they learn more about a new road improvement scheme.
Pupils at Burlington School in Kirkby-in-Furness enjoyed classroom-based building projects, designing and building a bridge using straws, masking tape and elastic bands, to understand about the strongest shapes and designs used in bridge construction.
The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) session helped the pupils get a better understanding of the engineering involved in the nearby Grizebeck improvement scheme, a new 1.4km single carriageway road between Chapels and Grizebeck on the A595, north of Barrow, due to start next year subject to funding being confirmed.
The session at Burlington School was led by council officers and representatives from the main contractors Story Contracting.
The route of the new road will run to the east of the existing A595, passing properties at Dove Bank and Dove Ford before crossing the existing A595 and creating a new junction with the A595/A5092 to the west of the existing junction.
The project will boost economic growth by reducing journey times on the A595, especially when the road is used as a diversion route if the A590 is closed between Dalton and Greenodd.
The scheme will also improve road safety on the A595 and make it more convenient for freight traffic to access existing and proposed major developments.
Burlington pupils were also asked to come up with some potential artwork ideas, as well as possible names for the new bridge.
The Grizebeck project was initiated by Cumbria County Council and will now be continued by the new Westmorland and Furness Council. Funding to progress the design of the scheme has been provided by the council, Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Department for Transport. Funding for the building of the new road is still to be confirmed.
Picture captions: Pupils at Burlington School pupils enjoying the STEM session, where Story team Amelia Hall, Stu Bowman and Will Storey were joined by council officers Mark Robinson and Jack Tebbs as they led the bridge-building exercise.