Medway Viaducts | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°22′33″N0°28′32″E / 51.3758°N 0.4755°E |
Carries | Original:4 lanes of M2 plus hard shoulder & Bridleway New: 4 lanes of M2 plus hard shoulder Rail: 2 tracks of High Speed 1 |
Crosses | River Medway |
Locale | Cuxton, England |
Characteristics | |
Design | Cantilever |
Total length | Original: 997.3 metres (3,272 ft) New: Rail: 1,300 metres (4,265 ft) |
Width | Original: 34.44 metres (113 ft) New: Rail: |
Longest span | Original: 152.4 metres (500 ft) New: Rail:152.4 metres (500 ft) |
Clearance below | Original: 35.5 metres (116 ft) at maximum New: Rail: |
History | |
Opened | Original: 29 May 1963 New: 2003 Rail: September 2003 |
Location | |
The Medway Viaducts are three bridges or viaducts that cross the River Medway between Cuxton and Borstal in north Kent, England. The two road bridges carry the M2 motorway carriageways. The other viaduct carries the High Speed 1 railway line linking London and the Channel Tunnel. All three bridges pass over the Medway Valley Line (to Paddock Wood).
The first Medway Viaduct, built to carry the M2 motorway, opened on 29 May 1963. It remained the only overcrossing of the river on this site until the 2000s, at which point two further bridges were constructed. The second Medway Viaduct was part of the M2 widening scheme, its opening in 2003 enabled the first bridge to be reconfigured to carry coast-bound road traffic only, while the new structure carried the London-bound traffic instead. Other remedial works to the older first bridge were also carried out around this time, including the replacement of its original concrete central span with a steel-braced equivalent.
The third Medway Viaduct was completed in 2002, enabling the High Speed 1 railway line to traverse the river. Its design was somewhat unusual, using V-shaped reinforced concrete piers to support its bridge deck, which was prefabricated in segments and launched into position using hydraulic rams from the abutments; this deck is a cantilever structure. During 2003, a new British rail speed record was achieved by a specially formed Eurostar train crossed the viaduct at 208 mph (335 km/h). It has also won awards for its novel civil engineering practices.
Opened on 29 May 1963, by Ernest Marples, the Minister of Transport, the first Medway crossing formed a key element of the new M2 motorway. [1] [2] Built at a cost of £2.5 million, invitations to tender for the bridge's construction were sought in 1959. It consists of three main spans. The largest over the River Medway spans 500 ft, and the other two are 313 ft each. There are seventeen smaller spans of 100 to 135 ft. [2] The construction was carried by a joint venture of Christiani & Nielsen and Kier Group. [3]
As originally built, the first bridge carried a six-lane (two London-bound, two coast-bound, two hard shoulder) formation. In addition, a footpath was present along either side of the road lanes that doubled as a small service road for maintenance personnel and pedestrians alike. These footpaths formed part of the North Downs Way, which offered panoramic views of the Medway Valley and beyond. Central crash barriers were not originally fitted, but were subsequently retrofitted for safety reasons. [2] During the widening of the M2 from two lanes to four, which was undertaken in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the original bridge was subject to extensive refurbishment and strengthening measures. The original central span, which was made from concrete beams, was replaced with steel girders. The concrete beams were broken up on-site using high pressure water-cutting equipment prior to disposal. [2] [4]
Various safety improvements were also implemented across the original bridge, including new steel crash barriers, in late 2006. [5] On 29 May 2013, the M2 celebrated its 50th anniversary. [1] During the summer of 2019, eleven closures of the bridge over the course of three months were necessitated while work to repair multiple bridge joints across the structure was underway. [6]
Completed during 2003, the second motorway bridge is the newest of the three crossings that traverse the River Medway at this point. It was built as part of the M2 widening project, the structure being located south of the original bridge. [7] Its construction benefitted from work to build the adjacent High Speed One railway, such as the reuse of spoil from the North Downs Tunnel to build up the new London-bound road embarkment leading to the bridge. [2]
As a result of the new motorway viaduct's completion, the formation of the M2 motorway crossing was changed; the layout of the original bridge being reordered into three coast-bound lanes, along with a hard shoulder, while both footpaths were reduced in size, including the permanent closure of the south facing footpath, leaving only one path available for pedestrians. [2]
The western bridge carries High Speed 1 (HS1), the high-speed rail link that connects London with the Channel Tunnel.
The rail viaduct is a 1.3 km (0.81 mi) long structure that spans the River Medway, Wouldham Road and Burham Roads in Borstal. It is a multi-span structure, with typical approach spans of 40.5 m (133 ft), while the central navigation span had a length of 152 m (499 ft). On account of the central span having been designed with a balanced cantilever approach, this necessitated the use of certain techniques in its construction, which included the launching of the side spans in an incremental fashion from both the east and west abutments using a series of hydraulic rams. To withstand this, the bridge deck sections were fabricated using bonded prestressing construction; when positioned correctly, these sections cantilever together, aided by external prestressing for its continuity. [8]
The substructure consists of reinforced concrete pier columns that are supported upon bored piles. One distinct feature of the columns is that they are in a "V" shape, which provide greater lateral support and stability, particularly in the event of two high-speed trains deploying their emergency brakes at high speeds while traversing the structure. The structure was designed with several unique features so it could properly accommodate rail movements, including articulation and numerous movement joints. [8] It was also designed to give a broadly similar appearance to the existing viaducts where they run parallel to one another, which includes matching spans and profiles. [9]
In 2003, it was awarded the Concrete Society’s Civil Engineering Category award for "outstanding merit in the use of concrete". [10] [11] A plaque marking this achievement has been attached to one of the upright support legs on the Strood side of the viaduct.
The rail viaduct has been described as being a leading piece of civil engineering for the new line, and has become a prominent symbol of it. On 30 July 2003, a specially formed Eurostar train crossed the viaduct and in to the Nashenden Valley at 208 mph (335 km/h), an occurrence that established a new speed record on the British railway network. [12] [13] In advance of the tenth anniversary of this record-breaking run, a plaque was placed at a nearby vantage point overlooking the railway viaduct.
High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a 109.9-kilometre (68.3-mile) high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel.
A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers, from which cables support 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 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.
The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance of 70 miles (113 km). About 13 miles (21 km) of the river lies in East Sussex, with the remainder being in Kent.
The M2 is a 26-mile-long (42 km) long motorway in Kent, England, and was built to bypass a section of the A2 road in Kent, which goes through the Medway Towns, Sittingbourne, and Faversham. It provides an alternative route to the Port of Dover, which supplements the M20 motorway located further to the south. The terminal junctions of the M2 intersect with the A2, which come together to form a 62-mile-long (100 km) long trunk road from London to Dover.
The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It follows on from the A20 at Swanley, meeting the M25, and continuing on to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover. It is 50.6 miles (81.4 km) long. Although not signposted in England, this road is part of the European route E15. It is also used as a holding area for goods traffic when traffic across the English Channel is disrupted, such as Operation Stack and Operation Brock.
Eugène Freyssinet was a French structural and civil engineer. He was the major pioneer of prestressed concrete.
The Millau Viaduct is a multispan cable-stayed bridge completed in 2004 across the gorge valley of the Tarn near Millau in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie Region, in Southern France. The design team was led by engineer Michel Virlogeux and English architect Norman Foster. As of October 2023, it is the tallest bridge in the world, having a structural height of 343 metres (1,125 ft).
The Kingston Bridge is a balanced cantilever dual-span ten lane road bridge made of triple-cell segmented prestressed concrete box girders crossing the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland.
Ebbsfleet International railway station is in Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent, 10 miles east of London, England, near Dartford and the Bluewater Shopping Centre to the west and Gravesend to the east. The station, part of the Thames Gateway urban regeneration project, is on the High Speed 1 (HS1) rail line, 300 metres south-west of Northfleet railway station, off the A2 trunk road, 5 mi (8.0 km) from its junction with the M25 motorway. It served as a primary park-and-rail service for the London 2012 Olympics.
Christian Menn was a renowned Swiss civil engineer and bridge designer. He was involved in the construction of around 100 bridges worldwide, but the focus of his work was in eastern Switzerland, especially in canton Graubünden. He continued the tradition of and had a decisive influence on Swiss bridge building. The technical and aesthetic possibilities of prestressed concrete were most fully realized with his bridges in Switzerland.
The Loughor railway viaduct carries the West Wales Line across the River Loughor. It is adjacent, and runs parallel to, the Loughor road bridge. The 1880 viaduct was granted Grade II listed building status. Before it was demolished in early 2013, the viaduct was the last remaining timber viaduct designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
The Hawkesbury River railway bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge in New South Wales, Australia that carries the Main North railway line across the Hawkesbury River. The bridge crosses between Brooklyn on the northern outskirts of Sydney and Cogra Bay in the Central Coast region. The railway bridge was to be the last link in a railway network that linked the state capitals Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and was a major engineering feat at the time. The original railway bridge was built in 1889 and replaced by the current bridge in 1946. The 1946 bridge was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The North Downs Tunnel, also known as the Blue Bell Hill Tunnel, is a railway tunnel that carries High Speed 1 through the North Downs, at Blue Bell Hill near Maidstone in Kent, south-east England.
The Newmarket Viaduct is a seven-lane state highway viaduct in Auckland, New Zealand. The 700 m long viaduct, which is up to 20 m high, carries the Southern Motorway over the Newmarket suburb.
The Langwieser Viaduct is a single track reinforced concrete railway bridge spanning the Plessur River and the Sapünerbach, near Langwies, in the Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland.
Pedro Álvares Ribeiro do Carmo Pacheco is a Portuguese civil engineer and professor of bridges at the Engineering Faculty of Porto University. He also co-founded BERD, a bridge engineering company. Pacheco is the mentor of the organic prestressing system concept, based on the human muscle, used in bridge engineering worldwide.
The Hølendalen Bridges are three parallel concrete cantilever bridge which cross Hølendalen in Vestby, Norway. One carries two tracks of the Østfold Line, the other two carry four lanes of European Road E6. The bridges have four spans, the two in center at 128 meters (420 ft) and the two outer at 80 meters (260 ft). The overall lengths are 416 meters (1,365 ft). The bridges are up to 50 meters (160 ft) above the valley and the creek of Såna.
The Byker Viaduct is a 2,674 ft (815 m) curved S-shaped light railway bridge, which carries the Tyne and Wear Metro over the River Ouseburn in Newcastle upon Tyne. It carries the line from Manors Metro station in the city centre to the west, to Byker Metro station in the area of Byker to the east, over the lower Ouseburn valley, with the river emptying into the north side of the River Tyne, to the south. It was one of two major bridges built specifically for the Tyne and Wear Metro, the other being the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge crossing the River Tyne.
The Colne Valley Viaduct is a bridge, under construction as of 2024, which will carry the High Speed 2 railway over the Colne Valley Regional Park and the Grand Union Canal, in Hillingdon, west London. When completed, its length of 3.4 kilometres (2.1 mi) and a weight of 116,000 tonnes will make it the largest railway bridge in the UK. It is one of the largest single civil engineering works of HS2 Phase 1.
The Wendover Dean Viaduct is a railway viaduct currently under construction that will carry the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway line across farmland between Wendover and Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England.
{{cite book}}
: |journal=
ignored (help){{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)