42-630: The Erskine Bridge is a multi span cable-stayed box girder bridge spanning the River Clyde in west central Scotland. The bridge connects West Dunbartonshire with Renfrewshire and can be used by all types of motor vehicles , cyclists and pedestrians . As well as crossing the Clyde, the bridge also crosses the Forth and Clyde Canal and the North Clyde railway line . A small part of Kilpatrick railway station
84-460: A 2-span or 3-span cable-stayed bridge, the loads from the main spans are normally anchored back near the end abutments by stays in the end spans. For more spans, this is not the case and the bridge structure is less stiff overall. This can create difficulties in both the design of the deck and the pylons. Examples of multiple-span structures in which this is the case include Ting Kau Bridge , where additional 'cross-bracing' stays are used to stabilise
126-491: A Tolls Suspension Order following an announcement that the tolling was to cease after 31 March 2006. The bridge had briefly been free of charge before - in 2001 an oversight caused the legislative order enforcing the toll to lapse and drivers crossed free until the new legislation was enforced. At this point the contract for toll collection was put out to tender and was re-awarded to Apcoa from 1 April 2002. The contract for toll collection expired on 31 March 2006. Toll charges from
168-647: Is a cable-stayed bridge with a more substantial bridge deck that, being stiffer and stronger, allows the cables to be omitted close to the tower and for the towers to be lower in proportion to the span. The first extradosed bridges were the Ganter Bridge and Sunniberg Bridge in Switzerland. The first extradosed bridge in the United States, the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge was built to carry I-95 across
210-650: Is also a camera that takes photos of the vehicle from side-on which can identify the haulage company at fault. The system can also check if HGV axles are lifted when they should not be and is operational 24 hours a day. Reports can be printed for overweight vehicles. The bridge itself is the A898 road and its short approach from the south is the M898 motorway which is a spur from the M8 motorway . The bridge connects Erskine in Renfrewshire on
252-498: Is one of Scotland's most notorious suicide spots: estimates suggest that more than fifteen people commit suicide there each year. This has led to the Samaritans charity placing signs at each path leading onto the bridge and also within four public telephone boxes that are situated on the twin footpaths running adjacent to the roadway on either side of the river. There are also normal SOS phones as seen on motorways nationwide. The bridge
294-500: Is optimal for spans longer than cantilever bridges and shorter than suspension bridges. This is the range within which cantilever bridges would rapidly grow heavier, and suspension bridge cabling would be more costly. Cable-stayed bridges were being designed and constructed by the late 16th century, and the form found wide use in the late 19th century. Early examples, including the Brooklyn Bridge , often combined features from both
336-541: Is situated underneath the bridge at the north side. The bridge is part of the A898 road. On completion the bridge replaced the Erskine to Old Kilpatrick ferry service . The bridge was designed by William Brown (1928–2005), a structural engineer and bridge designer who specialised in suspension bridges . He was one of the principal designers at Freeman Fox & Partners (now Hyder Consulting ) from 1956-85. Supervising engineer on
378-593: The Penobscot Narrows Bridge , completed in 2006, and the Veterans' Glass City Skyway , completed in 2007. A self-anchored suspension bridge has some similarity in principle to the cable-stayed type in that tension forces that prevent the deck from dropping are converted into compression forces vertically in the tower and horizontally along the deck structure. It is also related to the suspension bridge in having arcuate main cables with suspender cables, although
420-546: The Texaco Captain collided with the road deck on 4 August 1996 resulting in the closure of the bridge. The oil rig was constructed upstream at Clydebank before being towed down the River Clyde. The bridge reopened to pedestrians and cyclists on 22 August 1996. This was followed by cars and motorcycles on 30 August 1996 and was opened again to all vehicles including heavy goods vehicles on 22 December 1996. Repairs to
462-477: The Theodor Heuss Bridge (1958). However, this involves substantial erection costs, and more modern structures tend to use many more cables to ensure greater economy. Cable-stayed bridges may appear to be similar to suspension bridges , but they are quite different in principle and construction. In suspension bridges, large main cables (normally two) hang between the towers and are anchored at each end to
SECTION 10
#1732851081107504-451: The live load of traffic crossing the bridge. The tension on the main cables is transferred to the ground at the anchorages and by downwards compression on the towers. In cable-stayed bridges, the towers are the primary load-bearing structures that transmit the bridge loads to the ground. A cantilever approach is often used to support the bridge deck near the towers, but lengths further from them are supported by cables running directly to
546-499: The Donzère-Mondragon canal at Pierrelatte is one of the first of the modern type, but had little influence on later development. The steel-decked Strömsund Bridge designed by Franz Dischinger (1955) is, therefore, more often cited as the first modern cable-stayed bridge. Other key pioneers included Fabrizio de Miranda , Riccardo Morandi , and Fritz Leonhardt . Early bridges from this period used very few stay cables, as in
588-619: The Quinnipiac River in New Haven, Connecticut, opening in June 2012. A cradle system carries the strands within the stays from the bridge deck to bridge deck, as a continuous element, eliminating anchorages in the pylons. Each epoxy-coated steel strand is carried inside the cradle in a one-inch (2.54 cm) steel tube. Each strand acts independently, allowing for removal, inspection, and replacement of individual strands. The first two such bridges are
630-454: The beginning of the 1992-93 accounting period tolls had been a flat rate of 60p on all vehicles, except motorcycles and exempt categories. A discount of 10% was available to those purchasing 50 pre-paid crossing vouchers. Fire and police vehicles, ambulances, maintenance vehicles, and vehicles displaying disabled badges were exempt. The bridge was one of only three toll bridges left in Scotland when
672-699: The bridge cost £3.6 million with a further £700,000 in lost revenue from tolls. The bridge has been used once by a group of base jumpers in August 2010. A Royal Navy Westland Sea King helicopter from HMS Gannet , coastguard teams and officers from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service were all called out to the bridge following the incident. The bridge was designated a Category A listed structure in 2018 by Historic Environment Scotland , due to being "a state-of-the-art infrastructure landmark in Scotland for its time... recognised for its structural simplicity, economy of materials and slender appearance". The bridge
714-409: The bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays , which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern or a series of parallel lines. This is in contrast to the modern suspension bridge , where the cables supporting the deck are suspended vertically from the main cable, anchored at both ends of the bridge and running between the towers. The cable-stayed bridge
756-473: The bridge is used by tourist traffic from Glasgow International Airport bound for Loch Lomond and the north west Highlands . The bridge was a toll bridge until 31 March 2006. Apcoa Parking UK Ltd collected tolls on the bridge from June 1992. The tolling booths were situated at the south side of the bridge and were constructed by Culford Art Metal. On 1 March 2006 the Transport Minister published
798-405: The cable-stayed and suspension designs. Cable-stayed designs fell from favor in the early 20th century as larger gaps were bridged using pure suspension designs, and shorter ones using various systems built of reinforced concrete . It returned to prominence in the later 20th century when the combination of new materials, larger construction machinery, and the need to replace older bridges all lowered
840-562: The cable-stayed bridge are balanced so that the supporting towers do not tend to tilt or slide and so must only resist horizontal forces from the live loads. The following are key advantages of the cable-stayed form: There are four major classes of rigging on cable-stayed bridges: mono , harp , fan, and star . There are also seven main arrangements for support columns: single , double , portal , A-shaped , H-shaped , inverted Y and M-shaped . The last three are hybrid arrangements that combine two arrangements into one. Depending on
882-674: The combination of technologies created a stiffer bridge. John A. Roebling took particular advantage of this to limit deformations due to railway loads in the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge . The earliest known surviving example of a true cable-stayed bridge in the United States is E.E. Runyon's largely intact steel or iron Bluff Dale Suspension bridge with wooden stringers and decking in Bluff Dale, Texas (1890), or his weeks earlier but ruined Barton Creek Bridge between Huckabay, Texas and Gordon, Texas (1889 or 1890). In
SECTION 20
#1732851081107924-400: The congested Kingston Bridge further upstream. In the last accounting period between 1 April 2006 - 2 July 2006 whilst the tolls were free the bridge saw an increase in traffic on the previous year by 27.33%. The bridge is now part of the trunk road network of Scotland and is the responsibility of Transport Scotland . There have been two known births on the bridge. The first was a boy who
966-484: The contractors for the foundations and piers. The steel cable supplier was Bridon International . Force Technology were responsible for wind tunnel testing of the bridge. Steel was used to construct the deck and pylons and the piers are made from concrete. The road surface is mastic asphalt and consists of a two-lane dual carriageway and cycle/footpaths on each side. It has a 305 m (1,001 ft) main span and two 110 m (360 ft) approach spans. The width of
1008-568: The design, the columns may be vertical or angled or curved relative to the bridge deck. A side-spar cable-stayed bridge uses a central tower supported only on one side. This design allows the construction of a curved bridge. Far more radical in its structure, the Puente del Alamillo (1992) uses a single cantilever spar on one side of the span, with cables on one side only to support the bridge deck. Unlike other cable-stayed types, this bridge exerts considerable overturning force upon its foundation and
1050-475: The design. The reason for collapse was a difference in camber between 2 girders on the west span. The Erskine Bridge had already opened but needed further stiffening to meet new standards established due to the collapse of the West Gate Bridge. The bridge operates an overload weight detection system which logs vehicles axle weights. The weigh in motion system uses electric sensors and an ANPR camera . There
1092-533: The event of the bridge traffic numbers increasing the cycle tracks can be configured to include a third lane. There are 4 water mains pipes and 2 gas pipes running the full length of the underside of the bridge. It is the only bridge in Scotland with single cables over central main supports and was in this respect a precursor of the Millau Viaduct in France. At the time of building it was the longest bridge of its type in
1134-436: The ground. This can be difficult to implement when ground conditions are poor. The main cables, which are free to move on bearings in the towers, bear the load of the bridge deck. Before the deck is installed, the cables are under tension from their own weight. Along the main cables smaller cables or rods connect to the bridge deck, which is lifted in sections. As this is done, the tension in the cables increases, as it does with
1176-457: The project was Oleg Kerensky and the architect on site was R.E. Slater. There were several firms who constructed the bridge between 1967-71. The structural engineering was done by Freeman Fox & Partners and the steel fabrication was completed by Fairfields - Mabey . W.A. Fairhurst and Partners (now Fairhurst ) designed and oversaw construction of the concrete piers and foundations. Christiani & Nielsen , Lehane Mackenzie and Shand Ltd were
1218-539: The pylons; Millau Viaduct and Mezcala Bridge , where twin-legged towers are used; and General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge , where very stiff multi-legged frame towers were adopted. A similar situation with a suspension bridge is found at both the Great Seto Bridge and San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge where additional anchorage piers are required after every set of three suspension spans – this solution can also be adapted for cable-stayed bridges. An extradosed bridge
1260-510: The relative price of these designs. Cable-stayed bridges date back to 1595, where designs were found in Machinae Novae , a book by Croatian - Venetian inventor Fausto Veranzio . Many early suspension bridges were cable-stayed construction, including the 1817 footbridge Dryburgh Abbey Bridge , James Dredge 's patented Victoria Bridge, Bath (1836), and the later Albert Bridge (1872) and Brooklyn Bridge (1883). Their designers found that
1302-610: The road deck is 31.25 m (102.5 ft). Pylon height is 38 m (125 ft) high. The total length of the bridge including approaches is 1,321.87 m (4,336.8 ft). The clearance of the bridge is 45 m (148 ft). The weight of the steel is 11,700 tonnes. 1,250 miles (2,010 km) of galvanised wire with a breaking load of 500 tonnes were used during construction. The bridge has 15 spans in total and rests on 14 diamond shaped piers which have been designed to allow air to circulate freely around them. The deck and piers have been designed to flex with temperature changes. In
Erskine Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
1344-404: The self-anchored type lacks the heavy cable anchorages of the ordinary suspension bridge. Unlike either a cable-stayed bridge or a suspension bridge, the self-anchored suspension bridge must be supported by falsework during construction and so it is more expensive to construct. M898 motorway The M898 motorway is a 1-mile-long (1.6 km) motorway in Renfrewshire , Scotland. It
1386-508: The site include Roman coins known as sestertius and a crannog which is an artificial island. The bridge is the most downstream of all the Clyde bridges and is the last point at which the estuary can be crossed by road. Its main function is to divert traffic away from Glasgow and the urban stretches of the A82 which run through the city's West End and outer suburbs. The location of the bridge means that
1428-618: The south side to the A82 (Great Western Road) at Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the northern side. The bridge is set at a high level to allow the passage of shipping beneath. This offers views of Erskine , Mar Hall , Erskine Hospital , Erskine Bridge Hotel , Dumbarton , River Clyde , Glasgow Airport and the Kilpatrick Hills . The area around the bridge has some historical significance as there have been various pieces of Roman artifacts found. Historical items found at
1470-512: The spar must resist the bending caused by the cables, as the cable forces are not balanced by opposing cables. The spar of this particular bridge forms the gnomon of a large garden sundial . Related bridges by the architect Santiago Calatrava include the Puente de la Mujer (2001), Sundial Bridge (2004), Chords Bridge (2008), and Assut de l'Or Bridge (2008). Cable-stayed bridges with more than three spans involve significantly more challenging designs than do 2-span or 3-span structures. In
1512-596: The tolls were abolished. The others were the Forth Road Bridge and the Tay Road Bridge . The tolls were abolished on those bridges on 11 February 2008. The bridge had collected £72 million in tolls by 2001 and collected £5.676m in the last operating year. Its current traffic levels are estimated at 35,000 vehicles per day and because of this the bridge was considered something of a white elephant given its elaborate design yet relatively low traffic levels compared to
1554-597: The towers and the suspension cables being re-painted. Stage one of this upgrade started on 15 July 2013 and is scheduled to last for 12 months. Highway Barrier Solutions are undertaking the upgrade which will cost £6 million and whilst ongoing the traffic is being monitored by Bluetooth technology. There are detectors on the bridge entry points which feed live traffic reports to the Traffic Scotland website. Cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers (or pylons ), from which cables support
1596-411: The towers. That has the disadvantage, unlike for the suspension bridge, that the cables pull to the sides as opposed to directly up, which requires the bridge deck to be stronger to resist the resulting horizontal compression loads, but it has the advantage of not requiring firm anchorages to resist the horizontal pull of the main cables of the suspension bridge. By design, all static horizontal forces of
1638-524: The twentieth century, early examples of cable-stayed bridges included A. Gisclard's unusual Cassagnes bridge (1899), in which the horizontal part of the cable forces is balanced by a separate horizontal tie cable, preventing significant compression in the deck, and G. Leinekugel le Coq's bridge at Lézardrieux in Brittany (1924). Eduardo Torroja designed a cable-stayed aqueduct at Tempul in 1926. Albert Caquot 's 1952 concrete-decked cable-stayed bridge over
1680-585: The world. The bridge cost,including approaches, was £10.5million(equivalent to £240,720,000 in 2023).. Princess Anne opened the bridge on 2 July 1971. The ceremonial plaque of the opening can be seen on the railings of the western footpath, at the centre of the main span. Whilst the bridge was being constructed, the West Gate Bridge in Australia also designed by Freeman Fox & Partners, collapsed. An investigation published on 14 July 1971 found faults in
1722-464: Was born 19 September 1990; he was subsequently named Oliver Erskine Edwards in homage to the bridge. A second baby, Kiera Sarah-Marie McFettridge was born in an ambulance on the bridge on 18 January 2011. The bridge has also been the subject of a murder investigation and ensuing court case after parts of a man's dismembered body were found underneath the bridge in late 2001. A man was subsequently arrested and convicted for this crime. An oil rig called
Erskine Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
1764-490: Was brought into the media spotlight again after the death of two teenage girls who absconded from a nearby secure unit. In September 2011, work started to install suicide barriers along the length of the bridge to prevent future suicide attempts. Installation of the new barriers was completed by Amey Highways at a cost of £3.5 million. The vehicle barriers are also being upgraded. The new barriers being installed are H4a High Containment Vehicle Barriers. These works will also see
#106893