Byker Viaduct
The Byker Viaduct (also known as the Byker Metro Bridge) is an impressive curved - 'S' shaped - light railway bridge, which carries the Tyne and Wear Metro over the River Ouseburn in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is 2,674 ft (815 m) long
Designed by Ove Arup and Partners, and built by John Mowlem and Co. Construction began in 1976, and was completed in 1979. It was opened on 11 November 1982.
It was the first such bridge in Britain to be built using cantilevered concrete sections with joints glued with epoxy resin. It was also the first major bridge in the U.K. to be built by the match cast method of prefabrication.
For more information, see Wikipedia entry.
It is one of three high level bridges at this location, with the Byker road bridge to the south and the remarakble wrought iron Ouseburn Viaduct immediately north. The bridge and elevated section form an S-curve, which takes the track over the Byker road bridge at its east end.
See here for an account of the design of the viaduct.[1]
For the section across the Ouseburn Valley, the deck is made of pre-cast segments, the heaviest weighing 46 tonnes. Keying between segments is provided by serrations cast into the abutting faces. Two types of prestress are used. MacAlloy bars were stressed while the Ciba-Geigy epoxy resin adhesive at the abutting faces was still fluid, and threaded Freyssinet tendons provide the main prestress.