Queen Alexandra Bridge
Queen Alexandra Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 54°54′50″N 1°24′21″W / 54.9138°N 1.4059°W |
OS grid reference | NZ381578 |
Carries |
|
Crosses | River Wear |
Locale | Wearside |
Characteristics | |
Design | Truss bridge |
Longest span | 300 ft (91 m) |
Clearance below | 85 ft (26 m) |
No. of lanes | 2 |
History | |
Designer | Charles A. Harrison |
Constructed by | Sir William Arrol & Co. |
Construction start | 1907 |
Construction end | 1909 |
Construction cost | £450,000 |
Opened | 1909 |
Inaugurated | 10 June 1909 |
Location | |
The Queen Alexandra Bridge is a road traffic, pedestrian and former railway bridge spanning the
In 1899 the
The approaches to the bridge were completed in 1907 by the Mitchell Brothers of Glasgow. The steel bridge comprises three 200-foot (61 m) spans (weighing 1,000 tonnes each), plus a 300-foot (91 m) main span across the river (weighing 2,600 tonnes), and was the heaviest bridge in the United Kingdom at the time. The bridge was built from each side of the river and the two halves came together at noon on 15 October 1908. In all, a total of 8,500 tonnes of steel, 4,500 tonnes of granite, 60,000 tonnes of red sandstone from Dumfries, and 350,000 bricks were used.[1] The total cost was £450,000 (equivalent to £45.5 million in 2016).[2] The bridge also housed gas and water mains and in later years, high voltage electricity cables and a pumped rising-main for sewage.
About six million tonnes of coal passed over the upper-deck annually for export, but the trade rapidly declined at the end of the 1910s. For the last few years only one train per day passed over the bridge. The last goods train ran over in 1921, but the lower-deck continues as a valuable road link. In the
From 21 March 2005, the bridge was temporarily restricted to southbound traffic whilst repainting and repair work was carried out on the 96-year-old structure, which was due to take almost a year to complete. It reopened for both lanes of traffic on 12 October 2006, having been partly closed for 18 months and costing £6.3m in repairs.[3]
Previously classified as part of the
References
- ^ University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Archived from the originalon 25 January 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2006.
- Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth "consistent series" supplied in Thomas, Ryland; Williamson, Samuel H. (2018). "What Was the U.K. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
- ^ "Historic bridge repair work ends". BBC News. 11 October 2006. Retrieved 12 October 2006.
Sources