River Tyne - Scotswood
Road Bridge (1967)
View
of Scotswood Bridge from Hadrian's Cycleway.
Scotswood
Bridge was started in 1964 and is a "Tied Arch" Suspension bridge.
It has a 330-feet steel arch span with a suspended box girder deck.
The curved
ribs were tied by steel cables that were subject to corrosion and these
had to be
replaced with tie bars. Following some fatal collapses in other bridges
of this type in Wales,
Germany, and Australia it was restricted to single file for 30 months
from June 1971.
Work to strengthen
it cost £440,000, 25% of the original cost to build only 5 years
earlier.
No sooner had these emergency repairs been completed than more work was
required causing
more delays between 1979 and 1980. More money was spent and more delays
happened in 1983
and the final insult was when the whole thing was shut for several months
in 1990,
except to pedestrians / cyclists and must have made it the largest cycle
bridge in the UK !!!
The bridge
was originally designed to have six lanes but to save money the bridge
was only
built to a four lane width - a monumental shortsight in view of todays
heavy traffic flows.
The link
route between Hadrian's Cycleway NCN 72
and The Keelmans Way NCN 14
across the bridge uses a shared use pavement on the east - downstream
side..
It was opened on 20th March, 1967.
Cost £1.7 million
Scotwood
Chain Bridge (1910)
Scotswood Bridge (1831)
More than 5,000 people turned out for the opening of the first Scotswood Suspension Bridge, completed on April 16, 1831 at a cost of £ 15,000. Designed by John and Benjamin Green of Newcastle, two graceful piers were constructed in the Norman style of architecture to accommodate the elegant structure.
The distance between the points of suspension was 370 feet with two half arcs of 130 feet each with the total length of the bridge being 670 feet. There were four suspending chains consisting of flat steel bars with strong connecting bolts.
Originally a toll bridge the charges stopped when Newcastle Corporation purchased it in 1905 for the sum of £36,300.
© Doug-on-the-Tyne - 2004