Everything about the Erskine Bridge totally explained
The
Erskine Bridge is a
cable-stayed box girder bridge spanning the
River Clyde in west central
Scotland, connecting
West Dunbartonshire with
Renfrewshire. During construction of the bridge, a major collapse of the
West Gate Bridge in
Australia, a bridge of a similar construction, saw re-calculations in the design and it was found that it would fail to meet in the middle. As a result two large cable-stays were added to the box girder structure as support.
Until late 2007, it was a toll road.
The bridge was designed by
William Brown and opened on
July 2 1971 by The
Princess Anne. It has a 524 m main span and two 68 m approach spans and is 38m high and 1310m (4300 feet) long. The ceremonial plaque of the opening can be viewed on the railings of the western footpath, at the centre of the main span.
The bridge connects the
M8 motorway at
Erskine in Renfrewshire on the south side to the
A82 road at
Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the northern side. The bridge itself is the A898 road and its short approach from the south is the
M898 motorway. The Erskine 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. As a result, the bridge is heavily used by tourist traffic bound for
Loch Lomond and the north west
Highlands.
As part of a
trunk road, it's the responsibility of the
Scottish Executive, and was one of only three
toll bridges in Scotland when the tolls were abolished on
31 March 2006 – the others being the
Forth Road Bridge and the
Tay Road Bridge, where tolls were abolished on
11 February 2008. 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 uncharged until the new order was enforced.
Its current traffic levels are estimated at 26,000 vehicles per day. For many years the bridge was considered something of a white elephant given its elaborate design yet relatively low traffic levels compared to the congested
Kingston Bridge further upstream. It is expected to have a major increase in traffic since toll removal.
On
4 August 1996 the bridge was damaged when an oil rig being towed down the River Clyde collided with the deck. The bridge re-opened to
pedestrians and
cyclists on
22 August, to
cars and
motorcycles on
30 August and to
Heavy Goods Vehicles on
22 December 1996. The cost of the repairs was
GBP 3.6 million with a further GBP 700,000 in lost revenue from tolls.
An often overlooked feature of the bridge are four public telephone boxes situated on the twin footpaths running adjacent to the roadway on either side of the river, in addition to the regular 'SOS' phones seen on motorways. Each kiosk features an advert from the
Samaritans and are provided as a service to those who may be considering committing
suicide.
Further Information
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