A view of the Kingston Bridge from the quayside at Anderston in 1970.
The bridge was opened on 26 June 1970 to carry the new M8 Motorway across the River Clyde. It consists of two independent parallel structures (which can clearly be seen here) each of which carries five lanes of traffic, and it has a central span of 470 feet. Because it was erected using the free-cantilever method there was no need for central support, which would have had to be sunk into the river bed and would have disrupted shipping movements.
The bridge was never intended to carry the volumes of traffic that were crossing it by the late 1980s and in 1990 some serious defects were discovered. Repairs were carried out in 1999, when the bridge decks were raised so that repairs could be carried out on the support piers, and then were repositioned. Work on the refurbishment of the bridge and its approaches continued into 2003.
Reference: D-OPW 76/51/4
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
Anderston Quay, bridge decks, bridges, Kingston Bridge, M8 Motorway, motorways, River Clyde, roadworks, structural engineering
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