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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 932214
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/932214
(Institute Civil Engineers Historic Engineering Works no. HEW 2538/01)
Spean Bridge
Spean Bridge, with its asymmetrical side arches, an unusual practice for Telford but dictated by ground conditions, was on the longest road built by the Commissioners east of the Great Glen. The 42-mile Laggan Road from the Badenoch Road, now the A9, to Fort William was built from 1810–18 for what the commissioners rewarded as ‘£23 293; an appalling sum’.
Incomplete work was swept away twice during construction before the contract for an enlarged bridge was completed by John Wilson in 1815 with spans of 30 ft, 50 ft and 20 ft. It was widened in 1932.
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
