Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 602885
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/602885
This viaduct, erected from 1897–98 by the Glasgow & South Western Railway, developed the existing twin-line
strategic crossing of the Clyde to carry four lines of track into St Enoch’s Station. But its curious appearance as five spandrel braced arches of riveted steelwork, three spans of 84 1/2 ft and two of 69 ft, each consisting of two ribs, and a lattice girder span over adjacent streets at each bank, is misleading. In fact, the structure consists of two variable depth (8 1/4– 24 ft) continuous girders supported on cast-steel bearings, which were fabricated either side of and below the 1870 superstructure. The girders are fixed at the two centre piers but with expansion rollers at the two landward piers and abutment. There is a decorative cast-iron cornice and parapet on all river spans, with crenellated half turrets of red sandstone at the piers, and abutment towers in the same style.
The 1898 bridge is founded on 13 ft diameter steel piers sunk by means of compressed air to within 2–3 ft of the bottom of the existing cylinders. The engineer was William Melville and the contractors, Hanna, Donald & Wilson, Paisley and Sir Wm. Arrol & Co. (steelwork). The cost was £67 970. Although St Enoch’s Station was closed in 1966 and subsequently demolished, the viaduct is still in use, mainly for freight traffic.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
