11 Piers And Not A Beach In Site!

16/05/2012 - posted in Bridges, Rail

One of Barnsley’s most impressive viaducts – featuring 11 masonry piers – has been getting a maintenance makeover by HBPW.

Senior engineer Ross Hardy has been leading the project at Worsbrough’s Swaithe Viaduct, which has been having its steel parapet girders repaired.

Said Ross: “This is an impressive Network Rail structure that was built in 1896, and carries the Sheffield to Barnsley main line, crossing Worsbrough Dale Valley, the River Dove and two unmade footpaths and bridleways on the Transpennine Way.

“We are overplating the existing steel parapet girders which were last done in early 2000. The process is about maintenance rather than improvement and is very much a standard maintenance protocol that is done every decade or so.

“This is a 10 span bridge with eleven vertical masonry piers, and is an impressive legacy of the Victorian industrial age.”

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