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Wentbridge Viaduct
Wentbridge Viaduct
	Wentbridge Viaduct
Coordinates	53°38′56″N 1°15′18″W / 53.649°N 1.255°W
Carries	A1 road
Crosses	River Went
Locale	Wentbridge, West Yorkshire, England
Other name(s)	Wentbridge Flyover
Owner	National Highways
Heritage status	Grade II listed
Characteristics
Material	Concrete; Steel
Total length	472 feet (144 m)
Width	87 feet (27 m)
Height	100 feet (30 m)
No. of lanes	4
History
Construction start	October 1959
Construction cost	£803,000
Opened	November 1961
Replaces	Went Bridge
Location
References

Wentbridge Viaduct is a road bridge in West Yorkshire, England. The viaduct carries four lanes of the A1 road over the small valley of the River Went at an elevated level, replacing the previous bridge which was down on the valley floor and to the west in the village of Wentbridge. The viaduct, which is made from pre-stressed concrete, was opened in 1961, and is grade II listed.

History

The location of the bridge is 10 miles (16 km) north of Doncaster, 173 miles (278 km) north of London, and 5 miles (8 km) south of Ferrybridge.^[2]^[3] The viaduct straddles the valley of the River Went, with the village of Wentbridge to the west, and a nature reserve immediately to the east.^[4] Before the building of the Wentbridge Bypass, traffic was required to go through Wentbridge village on a "torturous descent" which created bottlenecks, and over a Medieval bridge which was very narrow in the village of Wentbridge itself, before another incline took the road out of the Went Valley.^[5]^[6] To alleviate these problems, the Wentbridge bypass, including a new bridge over the valley, was approved in 1959.^[7]

Construction of the viaduct required the use of 120 miles (190 km) of scaffolding, and 170,000 scaffolding fittings, all of which was required to withstand a wind force of 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) and support a weight of 8,200 tonnes (9,000 tons).^[8] The original gap between the two valley sides was 1,000 feet (300 m), but this was shortened by the building of embankments at either side.^[1] The bridge was designed by the Highways and Bridges division of West Riding County Council, though most design work was undertaken by Joe Sims.^[9]

The viaduct was opened in November 1961, and has a total length of 472 feet (144 m), and a height of 100 feet (30 m).^[10] The width of the bridge is 87 feet (27 m), which includes two 36-foot (11 m) sections with a 15 feet (4.6 m) gap dividing each pair of two-lane sections.^[11] The distance between the two supports at ground level is 308 feet (94 m).^[12] Two weeks after opening to motorists (11 December 1961), the traffic was stopped and a ribbon was unfurled across the carriageway for the official opening.^[13] In 1959, the bridge was costed at £682,000 (equivalent to £20,042,000 in 2023), but because of some extra works, including a two-lane bridge carrying the Went Edge Road over the southern end of Wentbridge Viaduct, the final price was £803,000 (equivalent to £22,577,000 in 2023).^[1]

The structure had a design capacity of 300 tonnes (330 tons) and was part of the Wentbridge Bypass, which took the road on higher ground away from Wentbridge, although the road does dip down, or sag, from the main road into the Went Valley.^[14]^[15]

The design of the bridge includes Freyssinet Hinges, the first time this type of hinge had been used in the United Kingdom.^[16] Both the Royal Fine Art Commission and the Museum of Modern Art in New York highlighted the "aesthetic qualities" of the viaduct, with MOMA including it in their 1964 exhibition of 20th century engineering.^[17] At the time of its opening, it was the longest bridge of its type in Europe.^[18] In May 1998, the bridge was grade II listed by Historic England.^[12]

In 2014, the bridge typically carried up to 86,000 vehicles per day, of which 19% were heavy goods vehicles.^[19] National Highways undertook a renovation of the viaduct in 2023 to waterproof the bridge.^[20]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c McCoubrey 2009, p. 177.
^ Harper, Charles (1922) [1901]. Great North Road. Vol 2 : York to Edinburgh (2 ed.). London: Cecil Palmer. p. vi. OCLC 655268751.
^ "State Of The Roads". The Times. No. 47345. 9 April 1936. p. 9. ISSN 0140-0460.
^ "A1 Wentbridge Viaduct and Wentedge Road Bridge - National Highways". nationalhighways.co.uk. 13 January 2023. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
^ McCoubrey 2009, p. 176.
^ Mitchinson, James, ed. (12 February 2022). "A corner of Yorkshire; the Wentbridge Flyover". The Yorkshire Post. The Yorkshire Post Magazine. p. 3. ISSN 0140-0460.
^ "Road Programme Volume 606: debated on Thursday 11 June 1959". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
^ "Mills Scaffold Co. Ltd Wentbridge Viaduct". The Times. No. 55291. 17 January 1962. p. 9. ISSN 0140-0460.
^ "West Yorkshire Bridges". Municipal Journal, Public Works Engineer Contractor's Guide. 90 (13): 445. 1982. OCLC 4530317.
^ "Viaduct opened". The Times. No. 55262. 12 December 1961. p. 6. ISSN 0140-0460.
^ "Wentbridge bypass". Municipal Journal, Public Works Engineer Contractor's Guide. 68 (352): 3,225. 1960. OCLC 4530317.
^ ^a ^b Historic England. "Wentbridge Viaduct carrying bypass over valley of River Went (Grade II) (1323681)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
^ McCoubrey 2009, p. 178.
^ Mallett, G. P. (1996). Repair of concrete bridges. London: Telford. p. 52. ISBN 9780727720078.
^ "Major Road Projects Volume 641: debated on Thursday 8 June 1961". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
^ Schacht, Gregor; Marx, Steffen (May 2015). "Concrete hinges in bridge engineering". Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering History and Heritage. 168 (2): 70. doi:10.1680/ehah.14.00020.
^ Clark, James (2015). A1 Landmarks. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. p. 58. ISBN 9781445654508.
^ "Work Planned and Work Completed". Official Architecture and Planning. 25 (3). Alexandrine Press: 134. March 1962. ISSN 2399-5327.
^ "London to Leeds (East) Route Strategy Evidence Report" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. April 2014. p. 6. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
^ "Overnight A1 closures to refurbish Wentbridge Viaduct". BBC News. 12 July 2023. Retrieved 31 July 2023.