Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 602861
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/602861
Clyde Tunnel ia a 1/2 -mile long dual carriageway tunnel, the longest and most advanced of its kind in Scotland, was shield driven under the Clyde from 1957–64, joining Linthouse and Whiteinch. Each tunnel has a heavy cast-iron lining of about 32 ft diameter containing a dual carriageway with a maximum design capacity of 5200 veh/hr and with a cycle track and walkway beneath (see figures). The approach gradients are 1 in 16 with a short level length at the tunnel centre. The portals and approaches are constructed in heavy reinforced concrete and, as most of each approach was below the water table, flotation had to be resisted, including by means of wide holdingdown piles. Generous ventilation provision was made with a building over each portal, carriageway road heating was built into the approaches, and special provision made for lighting, and pumping from four pump rooms with nine pumps each capable of delivering more than 400 gallons/min
The approximate cost of the civil engineering works was £10.5m. The consulting engineers to Glasgow Corporation were Sir Wm. Halcrow & Partners, with design and planning by Sir A. M. Muir Wood. The main contractor was Charles Brand & Son Ltd. The architect for the ventilation buildings and landscaping the approaches was E. J. D. Mansfield.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
