Great North Road Bridge Carrying North Bound Carriageway Over The River Nene

The Great North Road Bridge, built between 1925 and 1928 by Owen Williams and Maxwell Ayrton for the Ministry of Transport, carries the north-bound carriageway over the River Nene. This road bridge is constructed of mass concrete and features a central segmental arch that spans 109 feet, flanked by two flood arches, each with a 50-foot span, supporting a flat road deck.

The piers between the main and flood arches are designed with two pairs of cutwaters on either side, which rise from large splayed bases to the refuges in the parapet. The piers are also pierced by round-headed arches. A notable aspect of the design includes arches that pierce the spandrels, with two in each of the main arch spandrels and one in the flood arch spandrels. These arches have wide vertical expansion joints that extend from the crowns of the arches up through the parapets, with four additional similar joints above the extrados of the main arch. The junction where the expansion joint rises from the arch is highlighted by a chamfered recess instead of a keystone.

The parapet of the bridge projects on corbels that rise through it, forming pyramidal lozenge shapes. Inscriptions created by shuttering include the date in Roman numerals above the main arch, and on the south side of the main arch spandrels, it reads "County of Huntingdon," while the north side states "County of the Soke of Peterborough."