Redesign protects the first rail bridge (From The Northern Echo)

Redesign protects the first rail bridge

11:59am Saturday 21st November 2009

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ENGINEERS building a railway bridge stumbled across a vital piece of North-East industrial heritage, it has emerged.

Demolition work to prepare for a £4.5m Network Rail crossing over the River Tees, in Stockton, exposed submerged remains of the world’s first passenger railway.

In December 1830, the first ever bridge linking Darlington and Stockton was ready for trains, having been built by Sir Samuel Brown.

Unfortunately the structure was barely strong enough, with the tracks wobbling when trains went over.

As a result it rose in the middle and the pillars on one side cracked.

The only way to cross the bridge successfully was to chain batches of four wagons together at nine feet apart in order to level out the load.

Retired naval officer Sir Samuel Brown, who had previously spent his time working with navy ships, also built the UK’s first road suspension bridge linking England and Scotland.

In 1844, a Robert Stephenson construction replaced the 412ft suspension bridge, which was pulled down in 1842.

Workers from Carillion Civil Engineering started work on demolishing one of two rail bridges in April last year, when their boring hit sunken timber trestles.

The bridge was built in 1882 and had been redundant since the 1980s.

The timber trestles and random bits of masonry were traces of the very first bridge, along which George Stephenson’s Locomotion No 1 travelled.

To preserve the remains, engineers redesigned the new steel and concrete structure.

The plans also took into consideration the 1842 bridge.

Initially, there were fears the discovery would hold the scheme up by five months but this was reduced to three weeks, allowing work to be completed last year.

Simon Barraclough, Network Rail project manager, said: “Carillion’s radical redesign and changed construction minimised delays and also saved costs.”

Carillion Civil Engineering, has won the North-East Project of the Year Award by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (North-East) for its railway bridge.

■ For details visit the Echo Memories blog here

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