Bristol Derives 2: Bridgework [trans_scribe]

 

All Images: Ashton Avenue Bridge, South Bristol, February 2023

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The bridge to us is a great piece of architecture it has a great history and of course it provides a very easy local route for people to get from the north with two squared rock-faced limestone piers the southern one of which would pivot the swinging span 20 mm thick steel plates over the whole of the surface in an open letter published in January 2020 we then concrete it into the one side to create a cycleway and a walkway and in the centre of the bridge is the new busway it's had a lot of challenges  as no operator will run services without a moveable 202 feet (62 m) Whipple Murphy truss span weighing 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) with total metal work of the entire bridge weighing in at 1,500 long tons (1,500 t) logistics has shown signs of bus rapid transit creep primarily not fully operating on dedicated bus lanes for much of its routes operating in mixed road traffic and being subject to traffic jams in the background today which is great it's a fantastic day to have this bridge open we've been working here for over a year  it's been a very tricky job a difficult job the controlling railway signals were interlocked with the signal boxes on either side of the river making it impossible for signals to be cleared unless the bridge span was locked in the closed position... 

...here we are today with it opening and it's great day this bridge means lots of things to me our primary fundraising event for our charities is an event called break the cycle and we're really happy that we'll be able to route our cyclists safely over this bridge but from a wider perspective the bridge control cabin road and railway signal boxes and the reversible hydraulic motor were all housed in a single structure perched on stilts above the upper road deck services could not operate properly because buses were delayed by roadworks and congestion but as a team our football fans will have a much better experience of walking safely across the bridge through the park they'll really improve their experience with the bridge able to operate both ways each opening/closing cycle consumed 182 imperial gallons (830 L; 219 US gal) of water from the Floating Harbour it's been such an important park & ride it does mean the terrific amount of public money had been largely wasted our rugby fans will be delighted with it and it is anticipated that when a large housing development is built near the route the service will become commercially viable we've got four people four people.