Does Network Rail have an over-engineering problem?

[BRX]

Every time I see this gantry at Tulse Hill I wonder: is so much steel really necessary to support a couple of colour light signals (plus a human maintaining them)?



(Image is of a signal gantry with very substantial steelwork)

There are lots of other examples, including most station footbridges built in the last 10-20 years.

Am I being unfair - is there actually good justification for building everything in a way that looks like it has been designed to withstand nuclear attack?

 

[Coleridge]

I've noticed the same with regard to the electrification of the Welsh valleys: the masts supporting the wires are overbearing and very unattractive. Perhaps unsightly structures are cheaper to erect than elegant ones.

And don't get me started on the ugly footbridges that are appearing across the network...

 

[Notabene]

I think they must have shares in steel lol.

I find the aesthetics of it all rather depressing. What happened to elegance in design and form? I see recent high speed electrification in Italy and it is far less obtrusive.

Signalling in the 90s went down the same route, producing hideously ugly signal posts, cages and brackets.Function over form.
Things have, at last, improved with lightweight signals by Dorman and others.