50-650: The Erskine Bridge is a multi span cable-stayed box girder bridge spanning the River Clyde in west central Scotland. The bridge connects West Dunbartonshire with Renfrewshire and can be used by all types of motor vehicles , cyclists and pedestrians . As well as crossing the Clyde, the bridge also crosses the Forth and Clyde Canal and the North Clyde railway line . A small part of Kilpatrick railway station
100-422: A graduated driver licensing system, drivers must pass a theory test before being allowed to drive on the road. They can then drive with a supervisor for six months followed by a practical test, or they can complete an accelerated heavy vehicle course. LGVs and their drivers are covered by strict regulations in many jurisdictions. For example, to improve safety, limit weight to that which will not excessively wear
150-460: A 2-span or 3-span cable-stayed bridge, the loads from the main spans are normally anchored back near the end abutments by stays in the end spans. For more spans, this is not the case and the bridge structure is less stiff overall. This can create difficulties in both the design of the deck and the pylons. Examples of multiple-span structures in which this is the case include Ting Kau Bridge , where additional 'cross-bracing' stays are used to stabilise
200-577: A Category B (car) test before January 1, 1997 will have received Categories C1 and C1+E (Restriction Code 107: not more than 8,250 kg [18,190 lb]) through the Implied Rights issued by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) (more commonly known as Grandfather Rights). All UK LGV license holders must undergo a strict medical examination and eye test on application at age 45 and every 5 years thereafter. On reaching 65 years of age,
250-488: A Class B ( school bus ), C (regular bus) or D (heavy truck) license can drive a truck with a gross weight or registered gross weight exceeding 11,000 kg (24,000 lb) or any truck and trailer combination exceeding 11,000 kg gross weight or registered gross weight provided the towed vehicle is not over 4,600 kg. There are four classes of heavy vehicle license: 2, 3, 4 and 5. Classes 1 and 6 are for light vehicles and motorcycles, respectively. The classes describe
300-491: A Tolls Suspension Order following an announcement that the tolling was to cease after 31 March 2006. 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 free until the new legislation was enforced. At this point the contract for toll collection was put out to tender and was re-awarded to Apcoa from 1 April 2002. The contract for toll collection expired on 31 March 2006. Toll charges from
350-459: A medical examination must be performed on an annual basis. In the Canadian province of Ontario , drivers holding a Full Class AZ license can drive any truck/tractor trailer combination, a combination of motor vehicle and towed vehicles where the towed vehicles exceed a total gross weight of 4,600 kg (10,100 lb) and has air brakes, or a vehicle pulling double trailers. Drivers holding
400-679: Is a cable-stayed bridge with a more substantial bridge deck that, being stiffer and stronger, allows the cables to be omitted close to the tower and for the towers to be lower in proportion to the span. The first extradosed bridges were the Ganter Bridge and Sunniberg Bridge in Switzerland. The first extradosed bridge in the United States, the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge was built to carry I-95 across
450-667: Is also a camera that takes photos of the vehicle from side-on which can identify the haulage company at fault. The system can also check if HGV axles are lifted when they should not be and is operational 24 hours a day. Reports can be printed for overweight vehicles. The bridge itself is the A898 road and its short approach from the south is the M898 motorway which is a spur from the M8 motorway . The bridge connects Erskine in Renfrewshire on
500-543: Is any lorry with a gross combination mass (GCM) of over 3,500 kg (7,700 lb ). Sub-category N2 is used for vehicles between 3,500 kg and 12,000 kg (26,000 lb) and N3 for all goods vehicles over 12,000 kg as defined in Directive 2001/116/EC . The term medium goods vehicle is used within parts of the UK government to refer to goods vehicles of between 3,500 and 7,500 kg which according to
550-504: Is one of Scotland's most notorious suicide spots: estimates suggest that more than fifteen people commit suicide there each year. This has led to the Samaritans charity placing signs at each path leading onto the bridge and also within four public telephone boxes that are situated on the twin footpaths running adjacent to the roadway on either side of the river. There are also normal SOS phones as seen on motorways nationwide. The bridge
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#1732772124910600-507: 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. Cable-stayed bridges were being designed and constructed by the late 16th century, and the form found wide use in the late 19th century. Early examples, including the Brooklyn Bridge , often combined features from both
650-550: Is situated underneath the bridge at the north side. The bridge is part of the A898 road. On completion the bridge replaced the Erskine to Old Kilpatrick ferry service . The bridge was designed by William Brown (1928–2005), a structural engineer and bridge designer who specialised in suspension bridges . He was one of the principal designers at Freeman Fox & Partners (now Hyder Consulting ) from 1956-85. Supervising engineer on
700-608: The Penobscot Narrows Bridge , completed in 2006, and the Veterans' Glass City Skyway , completed in 2007. A self-anchored suspension bridge has some similarity in principle to the cable-stayed type in that tension forces that prevent the deck from dropping are converted into compression forces vertically in the tower and horizontally along the deck structure. It is also related to the suspension bridge in having arcuate main cables with suspender cables, although
750-559: The Texaco Captain collided with the road deck on 4 August 1996 resulting in the closure of the bridge. The oil rig was constructed upstream at Clydebank before being towed down the River Clyde. The bridge reopened to pedestrians and cyclists on 22 August 1996. This was followed by cars and motorcycles on 30 August 1996 and was opened again to all vehicles including heavy goods vehicles on 22 December 1996. Repairs to
800-486: The Theodor Heuss Bridge (1958). However, this involves substantial erection costs, and more modern structures tend to use many more cables to ensure greater economy. Cable-stayed bridges may appear to be similar to suspension bridges , but they are quite different in principle and construction. In suspension bridges, large main cables (normally two) hang between the towers and are anchored at each end to
850-451: The live load of traffic crossing the bridge. The tension on the main cables is transferred to the ground at the anchorages and by downwards compression on the towers. In cable-stayed bridges, the towers are the primary load-bearing structures that transmit the bridge loads to the ground. A cantilever approach is often used to support the bridge deck near the towers, but lengths further from them are supported by cables running directly to
900-507: The Donzère-Mondragon canal at Pierrelatte is one of the first of the modern type, but had little influence on later development. The steel-decked Strömsund Bridge designed by Franz Dischinger (1955) is, therefore, more often cited as the first modern cable-stayed bridge. Other key pioneers included Fabrizio de Miranda , Riccardo Morandi , and Fritz Leonhardt . Early bridges from this period used very few stay cables, as in
950-741: The EU are also "large goods vehicles." Commercial carrier vehicles of up to 3,500 kg are referred to as light commercial vehicles and come into category N1 . Parts of the UK government also refer to these smaller vehicles as "large goods vehicles" (also abbreviated "LGV"). To cross country borders in the EU, LGVs must not exceed 44 tonnes laden weight or longer than 18.75 m (61.5 ft), but longer and heavier vehicles ( LHVs ) are used within some EU countries, where they are known as Gigaliner, EuroCombi, EcoLiner, innovative commercial vehicle, mega-truck, and under other names. They are typically 25.25 metres (82.8 ft) long and weigh up to 70 tonnes, and
1000-636: The Quinnipiac River in New Haven, Connecticut, opening in June 2012. A cradle system carries the strands within the stays from the bridge deck to bridge deck, as a continuous element, eliminating anchorages in the pylons. Each epoxy-coated steel strand is carried inside the cradle in a one-inch (2.54 cm) steel tube. Each strand acts independently, allowing for removal, inspection, and replacement of individual strands. The first two such bridges are
1050-459: The beginning of the 1992-93 accounting period tolls had been a flat rate of 60p on all vehicles, except motorcycles and exempt categories. A discount of 10% was available to those purchasing 50 pre-paid crossing vouchers. Fire and police vehicles, ambulances, maintenance vehicles, and vehicles displaying disabled badges were exempt. The bridge was one of only three toll bridges left in Scotland when
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#17327721249101100-703: The bridge cost £3.6 million with a further £700,000 in lost revenue from tolls. The bridge has been used once by a group of base jumpers in August 2010. A Royal Navy Westland Sea King helicopter from HMS Gannet , coastguard teams and officers from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service were all called out to the bridge following the incident. The bridge was designated a Category A listed structure in 2018 by Historic Environment Scotland , due to being "a state-of-the-art infrastructure landmark in Scotland for its time... recognised for its structural simplicity, economy of materials and slender appearance". The bridge
1150-409: 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
1200-481: The bridge is used by tourist traffic from Glasgow International Airport bound for Loch Lomond and the north west Highlands . The bridge was a toll bridge until 31 March 2006. Apcoa Parking UK Ltd collected tolls on the bridge from June 1992. The tolling booths were situated at the south side of the bridge and were constructed by Culford Art Metal. On 1 March 2006 the Transport Minister published
1250-405: The cable-stayed and suspension designs. Cable-stayed designs fell from favor in the early 20th century as larger gaps were bridged using pure suspension designs, and shorter ones using various systems built of reinforced concrete . It returned to prominence in the later 20th century when the combination of new materials, larger construction machinery, and the need to replace older bridges all lowered
1300-562: The cable-stayed bridge are balanced so that the supporting towers do not tend to tilt or slide and so must only resist horizontal forces from the live loads. The following are key advantages of the cable-stayed form: There are four major classes of rigging on cable-stayed bridges: mono , harp , fan, and star . There are also seven main arrangements for support columns: single , double , portal , A-shaped , H-shaped , inverted Y and M-shaped . The last three are hybrid arrangements that combine two arrangements into one. Depending on
1350-476: The characteristics of the vehicle, the weight limits, and the maximum number of axles. Drivers must begin with a class 2 (medium rigid vehicle) learner license before progressing to a class 3 medium combination vehicle license or a class 4 heavy rigid vehicle license. A class 5 (heavy combination vehicle) license can only be earned after driving with a class 4 license for a specific timeframe (depending on age) or completing an accelerated course. As New Zealand has
1400-693: The combination of technologies created a stiffer bridge. John A. Roebling took particular advantage of this to limit deformations due to railway loads in the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge . The earliest known surviving example of a true cable-stayed bridge in the United States is E.E. Runyon's largely intact steel or iron Bluff Dale Suspension bridge with wooden stringers and decking in Bluff Dale, Texas (1890), or his weeks earlier but ruined Barton Creek Bridge between Huckabay, Texas and Gordon, Texas (1889 or 1890). In
1450-400: The congested Kingston Bridge further upstream. In the last accounting period between 1 April 2006 - 2 July 2006 whilst the tolls were free the bridge saw an increase in traffic on the previous year by 27.33%. The bridge is now part of the trunk road network of Scotland and is the responsibility of Transport Scotland . There have been two known births on the bridge. The first was a boy who
1500-484: The contractors for the foundations and piers. The steel cable supplier was Bridon International . Force Technology were responsible for wind tunnel testing of the bridge. Steel was used to construct the deck and pylons and the piers are made from concrete. The road surface is mastic asphalt and consists of a two-lane dual carriageway and cycle/footpaths on each side. It has a 305 m (1,001 ft) main span and two 110 m (360 ft) approach spans. The width of
1550-572: The design, the columns may be vertical or angled or curved relative to the bridge deck. A side-spar cable-stayed bridge uses a central tower supported only on one side. This design allows the construction of a curved bridge. Far more radical in its structure, the Puente del Alamillo (1992) uses a single cantilever spar on one side of the span, with cables on one side only to support the bridge deck. Unlike other cable-stayed types, this bridge exerts considerable overturning force upon its foundation and
Erskine Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
1600-483: The design. The reason for collapse was a difference in camber between 2 girders on the west span. The Erskine Bridge had already opened but needed further stiffening to meet new standards established due to the collapse of the West Gate Bridge. The bridge operates an overload weight detection system which logs vehicles axle weights. The weigh in motion system uses electric sensors and an ANPR camera . There
1650-544: The event of the bridge traffic numbers increasing the cycle tracks can be configured to include a third lane. There are 4 water mains pipes and 2 gas pipes running the full length of the underside of the bridge. It is the only bridge in Scotland with single cables over central main supports and was in this respect a precursor of the Millau Viaduct in France. At the time of building it was the longest bridge of its type in
1700-436: The ground. This can be difficult to implement when ground conditions are poor. The main cables, which are free to move on bearings in the towers, bear the load of the bridge deck. Before the deck is installed, the cables are under tension from their own weight. Along the main cables smaller cables or rods connect to the bridge deck, which is lifted in sections. As this is done, the tension in the cables increases, as it does with
1750-695: The implications of allowing them to cross boundaries was considered in 2011. It is necessary to have an appropriate European driving license to drive a large goods vehicle in the European Union . There are four categories: Operator Licensing Operation of heavy goods vehicles for commercial reasons in European Union requires an operator's license. This allows member states to regulate companies operating these vehicles enforcing number of safety requirements which includes driver's hours regulations and vehicle safety standards. Drivers who passed
1800-457: The project was Oleg Kerensky and the architect on site was R.E. Slater. There were several firms who constructed the bridge between 1967-71. The structural engineering was done by Freeman Fox & Partners and the steel fabrication was completed by Fairfields - Mabey . W.A. Fairhurst and Partners (now Fairhurst ) designed and oversaw construction of the concrete piers and foundations. Christiani & Nielsen , Lehane Mackenzie and Shand Ltd were
1850-547: The pylons; Millau Viaduct and Mezcala Bridge , where twin-legged towers are used; and General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge , where very stiff multi-legged frame towers were adopted. A similar situation with a suspension bridge is found at both the Great Seto Bridge and San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge where additional anchorage piers are required after every set of three suspension spans – this solution can also be adapted for cable-stayed bridges. An extradosed bridge
1900-517: The relative price of these designs. Cable-stayed bridges date back to 1595, where designs were found in Machinae Novae , a book by Croatian - Venetian inventor Fausto Veranzio . Many early suspension bridges were cable-stayed construction, including the 1817 footbridge Dryburgh Abbey Bridge , James Dredge 's patented Victoria Bridge, Bath (1836), and the later Albert Bridge (1872) and Brooklyn Bridge (1883). Their designers found that
1950-610: The road deck is 31.25 m (102.5 ft). Pylon height is 38 m (125 ft) high. The total length of the bridge including approaches is 1,321.87 m (4,336.8 ft). The clearance of the bridge is 45 m (148 ft). The weight of the steel is 11,700 tonnes. 1,250 miles (2,010 km) of galvanised wire with a breaking load of 500 tonnes were used during construction. The bridge has 15 spans in total and rests on 14 diamond shaped piers which have been designed to allow air to circulate freely around them. The deck and piers have been designed to flex with temperature changes. In
2000-408: The self-anchored type lacks the heavy cable anchorages of the ordinary suspension bridge. Unlike either a cable-stayed bridge or a suspension bridge, the self-anchored suspension bridge must be supported by falsework during construction and so it is more expensive to construct. Large goods vehicle A large goods vehicle ( LGV ), or heavy goods vehicle ( HGV ), in the European Union (EU)
2050-515: The site include Roman coins known as sestertius and a crannog which is an artificial island. The 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. The location of the bridge means that
Erskine Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
2100-635: The south side to the A82 (Great Western Road) at Old Kilpatrick in West Dunbartonshire on the northern side. The bridge is set at a high level to allow the passage of shipping beneath. This offers views of Erskine , Mar Hall , Erskine Hospital , Erskine Bridge Hotel , Dumbarton , River Clyde , Glasgow Airport and the Kilpatrick Hills . The area around the bridge has some historical significance as there have been various pieces of Roman artifacts found. Historical items found at
2150-512: The spar must resist the bending caused by the cables, as the cable forces are not balanced by opposing cables. The spar of this particular bridge forms the gnomon of a large garden sundial . Related bridges by the architect Santiago Calatrava include the Puente de la Mujer (2001), Sundial Bridge (2004), Chords Bridge (2008), and Assut de l'Or Bridge (2008). Cable-stayed bridges with more than three spans involve significantly more challenging designs than do 2-span or 3-span structures. In
2200-611: The tolls were abolished. The others were the Forth Road Bridge and the Tay Road Bridge . The tolls were abolished on those bridges on 11 February 2008. The bridge had collected £72 million in tolls by 2001 and collected £5.676m in the last operating year. Its current traffic levels are estimated at 35,000 vehicles per day and because of this the bridge was considered something of a white elephant given its elaborate design yet relatively low traffic levels compared to
2250-605: The towers and the suspension cables being re-painted. Stage one of this upgrade started on 15 July 2013 and is scheduled to last for 12 months. Highway Barrier Solutions are undertaking the upgrade which will cost £6 million and whilst ongoing the traffic is being monitored by Bluetooth technology. There are detectors on the bridge entry points which feed live traffic reports to the Traffic Scotland website. Cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more towers (or pylons ), from which cables support
2300-411: The towers. That has the disadvantage, unlike for the suspension bridge, that the cables pull to the sides as opposed to directly up, which requires the bridge deck to be stronger to resist the resulting horizontal compression loads, but it has the advantage of not requiring firm anchorages to resist the horizontal pull of the main cables of the suspension bridge. By design, all static horizontal forces of
2350-529: The twentieth century, early examples of cable-stayed bridges included A. Gisclard's unusual Cassagnes bridge (1899), in which the horizontal part of the cable forces is balanced by a separate horizontal tie cable, preventing significant compression in the deck, and G. Leinekugel le Coq's bridge at Lézardrieux in Brittany (1924). Eduardo Torroja designed a cable-stayed aqueduct at Tempul in 1926. Albert Caquot 's 1952 concrete-decked cable-stayed bridge over
2400-598: The world. The bridge cost,including approaches, was £10.5million(equivalent to £240,720,000 in 2023).. Princess Anne opened the bridge on 2 July 1971. The ceremonial plaque of the opening can be seen on the railings of the western footpath, at the centre of the main span. Whilst the bridge was being constructed, the West Gate Bridge in Australia also designed by Freeman Fox & Partners, collapsed. An investigation published on 14 July 1971 found faults in
2450-464: Was born 19 September 1990; he was subsequently named Oliver Erskine Edwards in homage to the bridge. A second baby, Kiera Sarah-Marie McFettridge was born in an ambulance on the bridge on 18 January 2011. The bridge has also been the subject of a murder investigation and ensuing court case after parts of a man's dismembered body were found underneath the bridge in late 2001. A man was subsequently arrested and convicted for this crime. An oil rig called
2500-490: Was brought into the media spotlight again after the death of two teenage girls who absconded from a nearby secure unit. In September 2011, work started to install suicide barriers along the length of the bridge to prevent future suicide attempts. Installation of the new barriers was completed by Amey Highways at a cost of £3.5 million. The vehicle barriers are also being upgraded. The new barriers being installed are H4a High Containment Vehicle Barriers. These works will also see
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