Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 604691
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/604691
This 30 ft wide bridge erected from 1889–91 consists of five spans of 54 ft 6 in. carried on six plate girders. Its piers are founded on concrete-filled wrought-iron caissons 63 ft by 9 ft in plan at the cutting edge, sunk under
compressed air to a depth of 56 ft below low water level. The cost was £30 500. The engineers were Crouch & Hogg and the contractor, A. H. Boyle, Bonnybridge. The steelwork was sublet to Goodwins, Jardine and Co., Motherwell, and the cast ironwork to W. MacFarlane and Co., Glasgow.
The bridge replaced a wooden one of 1820–21, superseding a ford, which was replaced by another timber
bridge in 1848. This bridge, in turn, was renewed in 1887, after a temporary timber bridge with ten spans of 32 ft costing £1105 had been erected alongside by Alex. Eadie to accommodate traffic while the present bridge was being built. These bridges confirm about three decades as the life of a timber bridge in the Scottish climate.
The 1891 bridge deck was replaced by Glasgow City Council Roads in 1997 with weather resistant steel beams
and a reinforced concrete deck. The original masonry, cast-iron parapets and ornamental outer beam fascia
panels were refurbished. The contractor was Mackenzie Construction, Glasgow, and the cost £145 000.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
