Road–rail bridges are bridges shared by road and rail lines. Road and rail may be segregated so that trains may operate at the same time as cars (e.g., the Sydney Harbour Bridge). The rail track can be above the roadway or vice versa with truss bridges. Road and rail may share the same carriageway so that road traffic must stop when the trains operate (like a level crossing), or operate together like a tram in a street (street running).
Road–rail bridges are sometimes called combined bridges.[1]
Tocumwal – separated by construction of adjacent road-only bridge in 1987.[11]
Murray Bridge[12] from the opening of the railway in 1886 until a separate rail bridge was opened in 1925.
Paringa Bridge, from its opening in 1927[13][14] until the Barmera railway line closed in 1982.[15] The railway area was converted to a cycleway in 1986. Originally one lane of traffic and the railway shared the area within the truss spans, but a single-lane deck was later attached to either outer side of the trusses to separate road and rail traffic.
Echuca–Moama, opened in 1879, road only since adjacent rail-only bridge opened in 1989.[16]
Robinvale, 1927, as part of the Robinvale railway line. Road only after construction of the line was abandoned in 1943. Replaced by a new road bridge in 2006.[17]
Camden Rail bridge attached to the road bridge until line closure in 1963.
Bechyně. In 1928 a bridge was constructed to carry the railway line and road from Tábor into Bechyně. Previously the line had stopped on the other side of a deep gorge from the town and access was by way of a steep road and narrow bridge. The rail line runs in the roadway for 100 m and traffic stopped by lights as for a grade crossing.[23]
On Viti Levu the CSR Company was obliged to provide road-rail bridges when it built bridges for the Cane Trains to their sugar mills, e.g. the two largest bridges over the Ba and Sigatoka Rivers. Many are now rail-only as separate road bridges has been built.
The Ba Bridge (550 ft; 170 m) has 19 spans, 17 standard spans (30 ft; 9.1 m) and a short span at each end, and has been rail-only for many years. The Sigatoka Bridge (810 ft; 250 m) has 27 spans. Both bridges are prone to hurricane damage due to extra flow of water; the Ba Bridge often disappears under water but is not always damaged (see Cane Trains).
Sigatoka Bridge was washed away by storms, January 2009.[28]
The Coastal Pacific using the upper level of the Seddon bridge in April 2007. Road vehicles used the lower level until a new bridge was opened in November 2007.
A 1930 report listed 33 bridges and estimated that the cost of bridge-keepers, extra maintenance for the decks, etc. amounted to £15,500 a year, as against £4,307 paid to NZR.[43]
Current
Alexandra – Manuherikia River, Central Otago Line – single level, shared deck (rail closed)
Taramakau River Bridge between Greymouth and Kumara - dual use from opening in 1893 until a separate road bridge opened alongside in 2018. This bridge was the last single-level or shared carriageway bridge in the country.[49]
Rødberg Bridge carried the now closed Numedal Line to its terminus in Rødberg and the highway continuing to Geilo over Upsetelva in the center of Rødberg. The rails are still in place, covered by tarmac. There has been no rail traffic on Numedalsbanen since 1988. The railway is in the road, so car traffic had to stop when trains were passing.
Bruhaug Bridge, also on Numedal Line carried both the railway and local car traffic over the river Numedalslågen. The road surface is wood.
Lidingöbron – 1 km long parallel road and rail (two separate bridges). The road bridge was built 1971; before that the old bridge had road and double track railway in the same carriageway.
Switzerland
Road traffic waits for a Bernina railway train to cross the road/rail river bridge over the river Poschiavino at Campocologno just North of Swiss-Italian border
King George V BridgeKing George V Bridge showing the road and railway
Ashton Swing Bridge Preston. Crosses Preston Dock lock. Road traffic and pedestrians controlled by barriers from the lock control room. Still used by The Ribble Steam Railway and tour trains visiting from the main line, still running in 2012 the bridge is used for delivery of bitumen by railway to the Preston Total Bitumen plant. On arrival from Total's oil refinery in Immingham, North Lincolnshire, the tankers are parked at the exchange sidings. The steam railway staff divide the trains and shunt the tankers into Total Bitumen's siding for the bitumen processing and distribution plant, later reforming the trains for their return journey to Immingham.
Britannia Bridge Robert Stephenson's famous, formerly 'tubular' railway bridge across the Menai Strait in Wales. Rebuilt as a road and rail bridge after a major fire in 1970.
Craigavon Bridge, is a double decker bridge located in Derry, Northern Ireland and is still in operation as a road bridge, it served as a rail bridge from its opening until the 1950s,
Connel Bridge, near Oban, Scotland, was shared until the railway closed in the 1960s. A cantilever bridge.
Queen Alexandra Bridge, still in road (A1231) use across the River Wear between Deptford and Southwick in Sunderland, mineral railway abandoned in 1921 after 12 years' use.
Newhaven Harbour, East Sussex, swing bridge standard gauge harbour branch shared with main coast road to Brighton, closed about 1962.
Portage Lake Lift Bridge connecting Hancock and Houghton. The world's heaviest and largest double deck vertical lift bridge. 4-lane road on upper deck, rail on lower deck (converted to trail). The lower deck was also paved so the bridge could be placed in an intermediate position to allow road traffic only.
Second Hannibal Bridge in Kansas City, Missouri across the Missouri River. Opened in 1917, had a road deck until 1956, when another bridge was built, but the rail deck is presently in use. Evidence of the road deck is still plainly visible.
ASB Bridge in Kansas City, Missouri, across the Missouri River. Opened in 1911, it carried vehicular traffic until 1987, when new span was built. Bridge is unique that lower part is a vertical lift drawbridge, while without interrupting traffic on the upper deck.
Roosevelt Avenue (Flushing River) Bridge - double deck bascule span with IRT Flushing Line elevated line on upper level and Roosevelt Avenue on lower level over Flushing River, completed 1928
Harahan Bridge (formerly) - Through truss bridge across the Mississippi River connecting Memphis, Tennessee to West Memphis, Arkansas. Built for two railroad tracks and two one-lane "wagonways" cantilevered outside the through truss. Vehicular traffic moved to Memphis & Arkansas Bridge in 1949; though the original decks on both "wagonways" were removed, one of them was rebuilt for pedestrian/bicycle use in 2016.
Amu Darya Bridge is the first bridge between Khorezm and Karakalpakstan, opened March 2004. It only has one track with the rails embedded into tarmac, used for trains and cars, one direction at a time, and is 681 m long. It now doubles the pontoon bridge that was the only link between Khorezm and the rest of Uzbekistan.
See above for the cross-border bridge to Afghanistan
During wartime and other emergencies, rail tracks on bridges are sometimes paved to allow road traffic to proceed. Examples include the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen bridge in Germany.
After a landslide on the Stromeferry road in Scotland in 2012, a 150m section of the parallel railway was paved with rubber tiles to allow road traffic to avoid a 250 km detour.[59]
^"A short history of the Echuca Bridge". Newsrail. Vol. 51, no. 1. Vic: Victorian Rail Publishing Inc. January 2023. p. 15. ISSN0310-7477. OCLC19676396.
