Description

SE 81 SW KEADBY WITH ALTHORPE A 18

Keadby
4/125 Keadby Bridge

GV II

Rail and road rolling lift bridge. 1912-16. C A Rowlandson and J B Ball,
engineers, Sir William Arrol and Company, contractors, for the Great Central
Railway. Minor later alterations. Carries a double track railway on the
wider southern section, with a double carriageway road on the north side.
Steel bridge on rusticated ashlar piers and blue brick abutments with
rusticated ashlar dressings. Brick engine room. Abutments and 4 piers with
cutwaters, plinths, cornices and blocking courses. Bridge has 3 main spans:
2 fixed western spans, each of 38.4 metres and one moving east span of 45.7
metres, with 2 further short spans to the east: a 12.2 metre span on which
the bridge rolls, and an approach span of 21.3 metres, giving an overall
length between abutments of 167 metres. The main spans are of steel framed
truss construction, with 3 main longitudinal girders, the middle girder
between road and railway. The moving span is a Scherzer rolling lift type,
in which the counterbalanced tail rolls back, raising the nose until the
bridge is nearly vertical. The rounded tail section, with a toothed roller
path for each of the 3 main girders, carries a large ballast tank rising to
over 15 metres above deck level, and is flanked on each side by a steel
framework for the winding gear. Electrically powered, originally by a large
storage battery fed by petrol-driven generators housed in the engine room
beneath the east approach span, later using mains electricity. The single-
storey, 2-cell engine room, disused and partly derelict at time of resurvey,
has a north front with 2 doors and 4 windows with iron glazing bars beneath
segmental arches. Since construction, the top ties over the roadway have
been raised to increase headroom, a footpath has been cantilevered outside
the north girder, and the battery house and wooden control cabin on the
north side of the tail have been removed. The bridge was the Great Central
Railway's greatest bridge undertaking, and replaced their nearby 1866 swing
bridge. At the time of construction Keadby was one of the first Scherzer
bridges in Britain, the heaviest and longest in Europe, and the first
anywhere with 3 girders. A plaque formerly on the eastern approach parapet
recorded the opening on May 21 1916 by the chairmen of the railway company
and Lindsey County Council who contributed towards the cost of providing for
a road section. Not lifted since 1956. This bridge is also in the parish
of Gunness. Sir J Ball, "Keadby Bridge", Proceedings of the Institution of
Civil Engineers, volumne 203 (1916-17).

Listing NGR: SE8409310652

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Keadby Bridge at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q13528032

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
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  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
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  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)