Major Bridges of ArransiaMediaeval Bridges Arransia has a deeply indented coastline with many estuaries and sunken river valleys running 20 or more miles inland. In mediaeval times, a number of towns such as Ormsby, Wrangle and Lucker grew up at the effective head of navigation for small seagoing ships on these rivers, and typically acquired a narrow, multi-arched stone bridge. Some of these rivers were still quite wide and needed impressive feats of engineering to span them – for example, the Rye at Barcaldine, although shallow, is still over 400 feet wide, and the Old Bridge has 14 spans of varying lengths. The biggest of all is the City Bridge at Danby which is 700 feet long. Until it was rebuilt in the 1830s, this had 19 spans, including one of 62 feet, and was mostly lined by precarious timber-framed buildings. The Earl’s Bridge across the Burn at Howick, completed in 1494, was unusual in having a 50-foot timber lifting span which allowed masted ships to proceed to coal staithes upriver. This bridge is now unique in retaining about half its original stone spans, but in its centre having a 19th century iron swing section, built in 1874. This is still operational, but is now rarely swung as the upriver staithes have fallen out of use. It is only one lane wide and is controlled by traffic lights. Until the mid-1950s, this, and the transporter bridge downstream, were the only means of crossing the Burn by road from west to east, making Howick a notorious bottleneck. Until the 19th century, these head of the estuary bridges tended to suffice for what road traffic there was. Most long-distance trade was carried out by sea or by inland navigation, with little using Arransia’s notoriously difficult and muddy roads. The fact that estuaries remained unbridged was not important when most traffic around them was waterborne anyway. Rail and Road Even Arransia’s railways tended to follow the river valleys and did not need to cross the estuaries. They had numerous viaducts in hilly country, but the only major estuarial bridge of the main wave of railway building was the High Level Bridge over the Tean between Gosforth and Hebburn, opened in 1858, which is 78 feet above the high water mark and has a central span of 150 feet, allowing substantial ships to pass under it. This carries a two-track railway and also has a two-lane road running above. Until the 1970s this was the route of the main A5 road through Hebburn, although it was partially relieved by the Redfern Bridge to the south, opened in the 1930s, which is at a lower level and blocks further progress by seagoing ships. Another combined rail/road bridge was that connecting Verne Island to the mainland, opened in 1888. This is a long, multi-span bridge carrying a single rail track and a two-lane road, next to each other rather than one on top, mostly crossing shallow tidal water, although there is a navigation channel in the centre which is crossed by a lifting span allowing a navigation width of 160 feet. This can be opened up to 10 times a day to accommodate shipping movements. The light construction of the bridge means that it is currently limited to lorries of no more than 17 tons maximum weight, and nothing bigger than a moderate-sized tank locomotive can work trains on the railway. The current car toll is 50p, which is doubled at weekends from April to October, and every day in July and August. The bridge is very vulnerable to shipping strikes in the treacherous tidal waters with their fast-running currents, and on average about once every two years has to be closed for several weeks for major repairs. In the holiday season this bridge forms a serious bottleneck, but it is hard to see how a high-level bridge or tunnel could be financially justified. The third, and most magnificent of the genre, was the Tean Bridge across the mouth of the estuary, opened in 1904. Although the point where the estuary narrows between Elswick and Cullerby seemed to cry out for a bridge, it was not on a major road or rail road route. However, the growth in ferry traffic in the late 19th century convinced the Northern Counties Railway, and work began in 1898. To build the bridge they needed to get agreement from the Tean Conservancy that it would be acceptable to bar upstream navigation to high-masted sailing ships, a number of which were still operating under the Arransian flag in the wool, grain and mineral trades. Even so, the bridge still has a height above high water of 137 feet, enough to pass the topmasts of any steam ships built on the Tean. It is a single-span steel cantilever bridge with a main span of 1,570 feet, carrying a twin track railway and a two-lane road. The majority of 20th century Arransian warships have been built on the Tean, so any book on the subject is likely to include numerous pictures of brand-new warships passing under the Tean Bridge on their way to sea trials. Although in a sense it is a “bridge to nowhere” and does not carry a major trunk route, it has acquired something of an iconic status and appeared on one of the pre-1987 series of banknotes with the famous HMS Badger beneath. “Painting the Tean Bridge” is an Arransian metaphor for a task that is never finished. The railway was electrified in the 1950s and, while passenger traffic is not heavy, it is used as the main goods route along the north coast. The road has always carried a toll – it is now 60p for a single car crossing. It is only from the late 1950s onwards, with the growth of road freight and car travel, that the road section has become particularly busy. It is now regularly congested in rush hour. When originally built, the roadway simply had steep ramps down to ground level with a gradient of 1 in 14. In the 1960s these were replaced by more gently sloping concrete viaducts to link the road more directly to the A54 on either side. There is a GSJ on the eastern side to give direct access to Elswick, but none on the west. Transporter Bridges In the second half of the 19th century, the transporter bridge was developed as a safer and more reliable alternative to a conventional ferry. It was especially suitable for locations where there were busy shipping movements or where a large tidal range made a normal ferry crossing difficult. It consists of a high-level structure of girders across a river, allowing seagoing ships to pass underneath, with a platform – generally know as a “car” – somewhat similar to a double-ended ferry boat suspended from it. Three of these were built in Arransia over a fifteen year period. First was over the Tean between Hebburn and Gosforth, about half a mile downstream of the High Level Bridge, opened in 1889. This has a span of 890 feet. Second came the bridge over the Esk between Barfleet and Partney, opened in 1898. This was by some margin the largest, having a span of 1,160 feet and a height above high water of no less than 162 feet. The final one was that over the Burn at Howick, opened in 1904. This has an overall span of 680 feet, making it the smallest of the three. All three are still very much in operation and indeed that at Barfleet, where there is no other crossing within 12 miles in either direction, has queueing traffic from 7 am to 7 pm. The Howick bridge survived the Great War intact, but both the others were significantly damaged, and indeed the Barfleet bridge was not brought into operation again until 1951. The Barfleet bridge carries a classified road, the A23, but the other two have never been classified. All are tolled, but the tolls vary widely – for a car, Howick is 20p, Hebburn 30p, but Barfleet $1.20, the same as the Esk Suspension Bridge. The Howick and Hebburn bridges only operate between 6 am and 10 pm, but the Barfleet one is 24 hours. This is the only one where there has been a collision between the car and a passing ship, this occurring at night in 1937, but fortunately there was no loss of life. The Esk Suspension Bridge Arransia’s most impressive bridge is the Esk Suspension Bridge carrying the A31 Expressway just north of Headlam. Since the middle of the 19th century, Headlam, at the mouth of the Esk, and to a lesser extent Carseby on the opposite bank, had grown up as deep-water ports for Danby, allowing ships to dock without negotiating the thirty miles of tidal channel up to the capital. A busy ferry service rapidly developed, and by the 1960s there were four large ferries in operation, carrying up to 50 cars or 16 large lorries, and providing a peak service every fifteen minutes. Inevitably, pressure grew for a bridge or tunnel to be built, but as the estuary is over a mile wide, 80’ deep in the centre, and has treacherous tidal currents, it was clear it would not be an easy undertaking. By the late 1970s, options had been narrowed down to a suspension bridge about five miles upstream from Headlam, but the cost would be enormous and it seemed hard to justify for something that was not a strategic route. However, in November 1980, in thick fog, one of the ferry boats was run down and sunk by a foreign-registered container ship, with the loss of 43 lives. This made it impossible for the government to resist demands for a bridge, and it was duly given the go-ahead. As it looked inevitable that Labour would lose to the Liberals in the coming 1981 General Election, this decision could be regarded as something of a poisoned chalice. The captain of the ship involved ended up serving thirteen years for culpable homicide, and the incident led Arransia to impose such strict curbs on flag-of-convenience shipping that she was accused in some international trade bodies of deliberate protectionism. Construction of the bridge duly started, and it was opened to traffic in April 1986. Once they have got the green light, Arransian contractors tend to get on purposefully with major engineering projects, and the country has never been prone to the extreme delays and cost overruns that some others have suffered. It is a very slender and elegant suspension bridge, with main towers 540 feet high, and a central span of 3,680 feet, which at the time of opening was the third longest in the world. The maximum height above high water in the centre is 167’, which allows “tall ships” to pass underneath, although the largest need to step their topmasts. As the surrounding land is very flat, the bridge can be seen for many miles around. The bridge has two 13’ traffic lanes each way, central armco barrier, 4’ hardstrips, two refuge laybys in each direction, and a separate cycle track and footpath. Pedal cycles and foot passengers are only allowed between 6 am and 8 pm. At either end of the A31 Expressway, there are three-level stack junctions with the A3 and A1 Expressways, beyond which the A31 reverts to being a single-carriageway road. The toll plaza is on the eastern side. Tolls are charged in both directions, currently 40p for a motorcycle, $1.20 for a car, rising to $7 for a lorry over four axles. From the start, the bridge was subject to a 50 mph speed limit, which is monitored by speed-averaging cameras that the police intermittently use for prosecutions, although, as they are required to in Arransia, always pulling offenders over at the time of the offence. The bridge is passed for all legal lorry weights, and indeed has been used for 250-ton heavy loads and tank convoys, but there are measures in place to prevent a build-up of stationary lorries. It is occasionally closed either to lorries or all vehicles in high winds. Despite the above, the construction appears more delicate than other comparable bridges, and there have been reports of uneasy undulations in the deck in some wind conditions. Nevertheless, it is something of which the Arransians feel very proud, and it adorns the current $5 note. Traffic tends to be steady rather than overwhelming, with a high proportion of lorries, many using it to bypass Danby to the west using the A25. Ironically, as using the bridge to travel directly between Headlam and Carseby involves a 20-mile detour, the ferry service continued in operation at a reduced frequency, as it still does today. The ferry costs $2.75 for a car, against $1.20 over the bridge, but under some circumstances that is still advantageous. The ferries also carry numerous foot passengers and pedal cyclists. Part of the construction team for the Esk Bridge moved on to build the Don Bridge at the mouth of the river between Angle and Skerne. This was a project of the County of Teviot but was partly funded by the Navy to help move stores and personnel between facilities on the two sides of the river. Skerne is Arransia’s major submarine base. Completed in 1989, it is a suspension bridge of broadly similar design, but much smaller, having a span of 1,340 feet and only carrying a two-lane all-purpose road. It carries the main line of the A52, replacing a previous ferry. It is tolled, the current car toll being 70p, but Navy vehicles on official business are exempt from tolls. The Lawrenny Bridge The first years of the 21st century have seen another impressive bridge open in Arransia, the Lawrenny Bridge carrying the A3 Expressway across a narrow section of the Barrow estuary between Ince and Lawrenny. The southern expressway bypass of Ince had opened in 1995, but the main route between the Tri-Cities and Danby continued to pass through the notorious bottleneck at Ormsby until the bridge, and the Expressway connection to the north as far as Firle, opened in 2003. It is a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 1,820 feet, by far the largest of the type in Arransia, carrying a four-lane Expressway with room for future expansion to six lanes in a wide central reservation and what are effectively full shoulders. It is the second longest single span in Arransia. Like the Esk Bridge it also has an offset cycle and footpath, but unlike the Esk Bridge it does not have a speed limit. Coming southwards, the bridge gives a superb view of the docks and cranes of Ince, Arransia’s fifth-biggest port. There is still a fair amount of seagoing trade up the river to Ormsby, but the bridge’s height of 83 feet above high water is sufficient for this. There was some controversy that this bridge was tolled, as it represented the first toll on the main line of a “Top 9” Expressway, and the fairly large Lower Burn Bridge on the A5 at Howick was untolled. However, it was pointed out that it was a major estuarial crossing, replaced a ferry, and cut a lot of time and distance off the journey. The current toll is $1.00 for a car and a maximum of $5.50 for lorries. The ferry between Ince and Lawrenny was withdrawn, but there is still one further down the estuary between Greenore and Stackpole. This bridge is already busier than the Esk Bridge, and the removal of the Ormsby bottleneck has greatly increased road freight along this corridor between Brunswick and Arransia. Inland Ferries Despite the various bridges that have been built, Arransia still has over 30 inland ferries. Some, such as the twin chain ferry across the Esk at Southinch in Danby, are quite impressive affairs, but most make do with a single small double-ended ferry boat. These are now generally diesel-powered, but in a few cases are still ancient coal-fired paddlers dating back to before the Great War. The two 1920s ferries that are held in reserve for the Verne Island service are in fact the largest paddle ferries still in service and started life running between Headlam and Carseby. Most ferries are privately owned although some are run by town councils – County Councils are not allowed to run trading activities on their own account.
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