Dutton Railway Viaduct

Dutton Railway Viaduct is a railway viaduct completed in 1836 by Joseph Locke and George Stephenson for the Grand Junction Railway Company. It is constructed from rock-faced red sandstone with ashlar dressings and features 20 deep segmental arches made up of 40 voussoirs. Each arch has a dropped ashlar keystone and rests on concavely battered piers consisting of 16 cyclopean courses on plain plinths. The viaduct includes simple battered pilasters on each rectangular plinth at the outer cornice and has projecting copings. There are cutwaters to the piers of two arches, which are now dry, adjacent to the River Weaver, following the re-alignment of the Weaver Navigation. Steel pylons from the 1960s were added for electrification.

Dutton Viaduct is the longest on the Grand Junction Railway and is an early example of a major railway viaduct, displaying more assurance than the earlier Sankey Viaduct on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which was built by the same engineers just three years prior. The construction cost was £54,440, with McIntosh of London as the contractor. Notably, no lives were lost and no serious injuries occurred during its construction, leading to a civic celebration upon its completion.