Holt Fleet Bridge

1929.

1929.

Crosses the River Severn at Holt Fleet, north of Worcester

Photo of bridge here

A cast iron bridge of 150 ft span, completed in 1827, opened 1 January 1828.

Designed by Thomas Telford. Ironwork produced by William Hazledine.

Foundation stone (2 tons) laid by Lord Foley on 21st August 1826

Bridge opened on New Year's Day, 1828. Cost £8300, being £200 less than the estimate.

In 1928 the bridge underwent considerable modification to strengthen and widen it, without spoiling the elegant appearance. The arch ribs and spandrel columns were reinforced with steel bars. Unusually for the time, these were electrically welded at selected points to the cast iron. The intrados and part of the extrados were constructed in the form of solid vaulted arch slabs of reinforced concrete. The cast iron decking was replaced by a reinforced concrete beam and slab deck supported by the spandrel columns and bracing. The abutments and wing walls were strengthened by reinforced concrete and faced with sandstone to match the original. The cost was £11,600, about half the cost of a new bridge. The contractor was the Yorkshire Hennebique Construction Co Ltd, to the design of B. C. Hammond (Worcestershire County Surveyor) in consultation with M. Boulongne and M. Gueritte.

The work was described in Engineering 1929/01/11, with a number of detailed drawings. 'It was found that, owing to the insufficient lateral stiffening, the excessive vibration, due to modern heavy traffic, was causing eccentric loading of the component members, and the continued loosening of many joints secured by keys and wedges, with consequent fracturing of members, most of which were much too slender for modern loads. In view of the successful strengthening of certain cast-iron railway bridges in France, the late Mr. C. F. Gettings, then County Surveyor for Worcestershire, made some preliminary study of the methods employed, but his unfortunate decease prevented his pursuing the matter. Mr. Gettings’ successor, Mr. B. C. Hammond, A.M.Inst.C.E., to whom we are are indebted for the particulars contained in this article, subsequently took up the question of the application of the proposed method to the bridge at Holt Fleet, and in the course of his investigation visited several large bridges over the River Rhone on the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway which had been, or were in course of being, strengthened by means of special application of ferro-concrete details. An important example of this class of work was, it will be remembered, described in Engineering in 1925 (see Vol. cxix, page 159). In consultation with MM. Boulongne and Gueritte, of Paris and London respectively, Mr. Hammond prepared the present scheme, which was duly embarked upon by the Worcestershire County Council, the Authority responsible for maintenance of the bridge. .... The abutments are strengthened by 12 reinforced concrete buttresses encased with a facing of red sandstone to match the masonry of the abutments. The buttresses have footings set into the sandstone rock, underlying the river bed, upon which the bridge is built. The wing walls being high, with a tendency to spread due to weight of filling plus rolling loads, have been further strengthened by reinforced concrete cross-beams connecting the buttresses in pairs below road level, together with reinforced concrete beams extending longitudinally between tops of buttresses. A reinforced concrete decking, similar to that on the span, carried on the foregoing will further distribute the loading .....'

The welding was carried out by the Anglo-Swedish Electric Welding Co.

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