Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 602895
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/602895
George V Bridge is a three-span, polished Dalbeattie granite-faced reinforced concrete beam bridge of box girders with curved soffits continuous over the piers. It was proposed before the Great War but not erected until 1924–27.
The bridge has been regarded by some as an elegant fraud, in that it appears to be an arch bridge built entirely of granite, which would have been impracticable. In fact, the City Engineer adopted the arch form and granite finish in order to blend it in with Telford’s Jamaica Street Bridge elevation in Aberdeen granite. The central span is 166 ft with a clearance above high water of only 18 1/2 ft.
Each pier is founded on cylindrical caissons which were floated into position on the ebb tide and settled on to the river bed. They were then sunk into final position by removing their temporary bases and excavating down to a solid foundation. The superstructure rests on cast-steel roller bearings set on the lintel girders, which resist the thrust arising from pressure on the abutments.
The cost was about £170 000, of which approximately a quarter was for the granite facing. The engineer was T. P. M. Somers, City Engineer, the designer, Conside're Construction, and the contractor, Melville, Dundas & Whitson.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
