Winthorpe Bridge

Winthorpe Bridge
View from grassy riverbank looking up at the natural white concrete arched form of bridge against a pale blue sky on a sunny day
View in September 2012
Coordinates53°06′N 0°48′W / 53.10°N 0.80°W / 53.10; -0.80
OS grid referenceSK805567
Carries A1 
CrossesRiver Trent
LocaleNottinghamshire, NG23
Maintained byNational Highways
Heritage statusGrade II* listed[1]
Characteristics
MaterialReinforced concrete
Total length520 ft (160 m)
Width82 ft (25 m)
Longest span260 ft (79 m)
History
Constructed byChristiani & Nielsen
Construction startMarch 1962
Construction cost£465,695
Opened27 July 1964
Statistics
Daily trafficA1 dual carriageway on the Newark bypass
Location
Map

Winthorpe Bridge is a concrete box girder bridge, carrying the A1 road over the River Trent in east Nottinghamshire.

History

Construction

The contracts for the bridge were awarded on 20 March 1962 for £495,695, and construction began on 16 July 1962. The six-mile bypass was to cost £3,250,000. It was opened on 27 July 1964, by Ernest Marples.

When being built, in July 1962, ten tree trunks were unearthed during the building of foundations, which were thought to be 500,000 years old.[citation needed]

The bridge was constructed by the Danish bridge-builder Christiani & Nielsen, who also built the M2 Medway Bridge which opened in May 1963. Another Danish civil engineering company Bierrum built the near cooling towers, along the River Trent to the north. The Newark bypass was built by Robert McGregor & Sons who would have laid the concrete pavement on the bridge. The north-bound surface had the concrete pavement laid in forty days, with three concrete-batching sites along the bypass preparing the concrete.

The bridge was Grade II* listed (1323680) on 29 May 1998.

Structure

The bridge crosses the River Trent in Winthorpe, Nottinghamshire, which is the third-longest river in England, at 185 miles. It is a reinforced-concrete bridge made out of nine box girders.

See also

References

  1. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1323680)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  • Modern British bridges, 1 January 1965, Dorothy Henry, ISBN 0853340587