Craigavon Bridge, Londonderry, Co. Londonderry

Craigavon Bridge is a two-tier metal girder bridge of 1931–1933 crossing the River Foyle in Derry City, linking the Waterside on the east bank with the Cityside on the west bank. It was designed by the London-based civil engineers Mott, Hay & Anderson and erected by Dorman, Long & Co Ltd of Middlesbrough under the direction of resident engineer A.A. Symmington. The bridge measures 1,260 feet (384 metres) in length overall and cost £255,500, of which £250,100 came from a Government grant and the remaining £5,400 from Londonderry Corporation. It is the only two-tier bridge in Northern Ireland and was innovatory in its day. It was officially opened by the Mayor of Londonderry, Sir Percy Greenaway, on 18 July 1933, having carried road traffic from 16 March 1933 and rail traffic from 23 April of that year. Until the opening of the Foyle Bridge in 1984, it was the only crossing of the River Foyle at Londonderry for local, regional and cross-border traffic, and it continues to play a vital role in the road network of the North-West region.

Historical background

The Craigavon Bridge is the third bridge to have crossed the Foyle at this location. The first was a multi-span lattice timber bridge opened by the Corporation of Londonderry on 23 November 1790. Designed by the American bridge builder Lemuel Cox and his partner Jonathan Thompson and constructed using imported American oak, it stood some 200 yards downstream from the Craigavon Bridge and measured 1,068 feet long by 40 feet wide (326 metres by 12 metres). It included an opening section to allow boats to pass, and its construction cost of approximately £16,500 was recouped through a toll collected at its west bank end. It is recorded as the "Wooden Bridge" on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1837 and 1853, and is today commemorated in the name Bridge Street beside the Foyleside Shopping Centre, at the foot of which the bridge once crossed the river roughly at right angles.

The second crossing was the Carlisle Bridge. In 1861, the Londonderry Bridge Commissioners commissioned a replacement at the bottom of Carlisle Road, upstream from the wooden bridge. Designed by John Hawkshaw CE of London and contracted to Messrs Joseph Butler & Co of Leeds, with J. Hughes CE of Londonderry as resident engineer, it was opened on 25 September 1863 by George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, after whom it was named. At a cost of approximately £82,000, it comprised nine wrought-iron spans each 132 feet long (totalling 1,188 feet / 362 metres in length), resting on cast-iron piles, with a middle span that could swivel horizontally to allow boats to pass. Like the Craigavon Bridge that succeeded it, the Carlisle Bridge had two decks: a lower one 24 feet wide carrying a railway line linking goods lines along the newly constructed quays on both banks, and an upper one 30 feet wide for road vehicles and pedestrians. The railway was built to the Irish standard gauge of 5 feet 3 inches but with a third rail to allow 3-foot narrow-gauge running. From 1868 it was operated by the Londonderry Port & Harbour Commissioners; whether a line ran across the deck between 1863 and 1868 is uncertain. Goods wagons were hauled across by ropes, with a turntable at each end to turn them through ninety degrees to connect with the quayside lines, enabling freight to move between the Great Northern Railway and Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway on the west bank and the Londonderry & Coleraine and County Donegal railways on the east bank. When the Londonderry & Lough Swilly converted to 3-foot gauge between 1883 and 1885, a third rail was added to the deck to permit mixed-gauge working. The split-level design also necessitated the construction of new high-level approach roads — Carlisle Road on the west bank and Spencer Road on the east bank. Under an Act of Parliament, tolls on the Carlisle Bridge were abolished on 1 January 1878 and the outstanding loan repayments transferred to the ratepayers. The bridge is explicitly marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1904 and 1932. Following the opening of the Craigavon Bridge, the Carlisle Bridge was demolished.

The enabling legislation for the Craigavon Bridge — the Londonderry Corporation (New Bridge) Act (Northern Ireland) — was passed by the Stormont Parliament in 1929. Much of the impetus for the project came from the Corporation's Engineer, M.A. Robinson (City Engineer 1909–1929), who is commemorated by a cast bronze plaque on the bridge. Construction began in 1931. The bridge was named after Viscount Craigavon, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and a Freeman of the City, in recognition of his services to Londonderry. The railway using the lower deck, operated by the Port & Harbour Commissioners, closed in 1962, followed by the Great Northern Railway line on the west bank in 1965. The disused lower deck was subsequently converted to a two-lane road; Mott, Hay & Anderson again acted as consulting engineers and the work was carried out by Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co Ltd. A footpath was added on the downstream side of the lower deck and the approach roads at the south-east end were reconfigured in reinforced concrete. The converted lower deck road was officially opened on 3 July 1968 by the Mayor of Londonderry, Councillor W. Beatty BA JP.

A fourth bridge over the Foyle, the Foyle Bridge, was opened on 17 October 1984 approximately 2½ miles downstream at McAdam's Bank to carry through traffic and relieve congestion at Craigavon Bridge; its central span of 766 feet (234 metres) is the longest in Ireland. On 25 June 2011 a fifth crossing, the pedestrian-only Peace Bridge, was opened half a mile downstream, connecting the former city quayside with Ebrington Barracks. Three bridges now cross the Foyle: the Craigavon Bridge (1933/1968), the Foyle Bridge (1984), and the Peace Bridge (2011).

Structural description: lower deck

The lower deck comprises twelve spans: five wide spans across the middle of the river, each 130 feet (40 metres) long, and seven narrower spans (four at the north-west end and three at the south-east end). The ends of all spans rest on piled cylindrical metal piers. The upstream columns are braced to their downstream counterparts with horizontal and diagonal struts. Neither abutment was observable at the time of survey, but both are probably 1930s mass concrete replacements of the 1860s masonry originals from the Carlisle Bridge.

Each of the five principal spans consists of a pair of Pratt steel girder trusses, fabricated from riveted steel plates and angle bars, through which the railway formerly ran and the road now runs. The seven narrower end sections comprise simple cross-braced girder spans. The bottom chords of all the spans are cross-braced to one another with riveted steel transoms which also support the deck. Some of the stanchions are embossed "Lanarkshire Steel Co Ld. Scotland. British steel." The two-lane deck's exact composition could not be determined at the time of survey but is probably of tarmacked reinforced concrete.

At the south-east end of the lower deck there are two small roundabouts, with roads running north and south to connect with the high-level road up to the upper deck. At the north-west end, a traffic-light-controlled T-junction meets Foyle Road.

A large-diameter cast-metal pipe — probably a water main — runs across the upstream face of the bridge, resting on top of the piled columns and clamped to the underside of a cantilevered beam affixed to the bottom chords of the girders. A smaller pipe runs above it, supported on brackets fixed to the outside of the girders' stanchions. A four-bar steel railing along this side is affixed to a metal beam across the top of the girders' bottom chords.

On the downstream side, a footpath is cantilevered out from the bridge's bottom chord. It has a vertical steel railing along each side, and at the south-east end a two-stage steel stairway provides pedestrian access to the upper deck. Two large-diameter pipes (probably water mains) are affixed to the inside face of the girders' stanchions and run between the road and the footpath, protected from accidental traffic impact by a three-bar steel railing.

Structural description: upper deck

The upper deck carries four lanes of road traffic and appears to be of tarmacked concrete. It rests on a riveted steel sub-frame comprising transoms running between the top chords of the lower deck girders, with secondary longitudinal beams between the main transoms and yet smaller transoms between these in turn. The deck extends beyond each end of the lower deck, these extensions being supported on riveted steel transoms carried on multiple sets of vertical H-beams.

The space beneath the south-east end of the deck has been partitioned off by a cement-rendered screen wall to form a yard. Although access was not possible at the time of survey, the ends of the deck beams appear to rest on a steel transom across the top of a masonry abutment of finely dressed granite blocks laid to regular courses. The space beneath the north-west end of the deck has similarly been enclosed by a screen wall, which continues northwards to form the frontage of a single-storey building bearing the legend "Londonderry Corporation Electricity Supply 1920." The south end of this wall continues as a dressed granite block wall with a roll-moulded coping that wraps around the corner. The south-west elevation of the screen wall is of random rubble sandstone to its lower half and dressed granite blocks to its upper half, again with a moulded granite coping; brick-trimmed windows with concrete cills along this face are now all infilled.

A footpath is cantilevered along each side of the upper deck, with pipes and cables underneath. Metal downpipes carry rainwater from the upper deck down through the lower deck to discharge into the river. The footpaths are separated from the carriageway by single-bar tubular railings set into cast-metal posts atop dwarf concrete walls. The parapets consist of latticed metal bars with a continuous metal handrail, braced externally with curved steel brackets. At regular intervals the parapets are punctuated by cast-metal piers supporting three-light lamp standards in Art Deco style. The inside faces of these piers have hinged metal doors giving access to the internal electrics; these doors are embossed with the city's coat of arms and motto "Vita, Veritas, Victoria" (Life, Truth, Victory). All the original lamps are now defunct, having been superseded by larger two-light steel lamp standards along the outer edges of the footpaths.

The south-east end of the upper deck spans the roundabouts on the lower deck and terminates at a traffic-light-controlled crossroads from which Duke Street runs north-east, Spencer Road continues ahead, and Victoria Road runs south-west. The upstream railing at this end terminates in a dressed granite pier which originally also carried an Art Deco lamp standard. On its inner road face is a polished pink granite plaque recording the toll-free status of the former Carlisle Bridge, which reads:

"Carlisle Bridge / declared toll free by / Sir Sydney H Waterlow BART MP / Governor of the Honourable the Irish Society / on the first day of January, 1878, a moiety of the cost / of freeing the bridge from toll having been paid / by that honourable body, and the other moiety by the / ratepayers of the following electoral divisions: / City and Suburbs, Waterside, Lower Liberties, Upper Liberties, Clondermott / Lough Enagh, Ardmore, Bond's Glen, Claudy, Eglinton and Tamnamore in / the Union of Londonderry, Faughanvale in the Union of Limavady, all in / the Co of Londonderry; Dunnalong, Ballymagorry, Ballyneanor, Mountcastle / and Donemanagh, in the Union of Strabane and County of Tyrone. / Samuel Maxwell Alexander JP DL Chairman of Bridge Commissioners. / Henry Darcus JP Mayor Derry."

Immediately below it is a cast bronze plaque reading:

"This tablet / records the freeing from toll of the upper roadway of / Carlisle Bridge / pursuant to the provisions of 40 & 41 VUC Chap CXCVI / and was removed from Carlisle Bridge and placed in this position / with the approval of the Honourable the Irish Society / AD 1933. / Alderman Sir Charles A. Ratho BT – Governor of the Society / Leslie C. Landragin – Secretary of the Society."

The parapet originally continued south-east as a finely dressed granite stone wall but has since been replaced with a vertical steel railing. The downstream parapet at this end was originally similar but has likewise been replaced with a vertical steel railing, probably when this end of the bridge was reconfigured for the new road approaches at the time the lower deck was converted from rail to road.

The north-west end of the upper deck spans Foyle Road (and formerly also spanned the Great Northern Railway lines running along the quayside) and terminates in a roundabout from which John Street runs north-east and Abercorn Road runs west. The upstream parapet at this end terminates in a finely dressed granite pier atop the granite screen wall described above, which also carries an Art Deco lamp standard. On its road face is a cast bronze plaque reading:

"City of Londonderry / Craigavon Bridge / This bridge is named after / the Right Hon the Viscount Craigavon DL MP / First Prime Minister of Northern Ireland / and Freeman of the City / in recognition of his services to Londonderry. / Senator Sir Dudley E.B. McCorkell MBE, JP, DL Mayor of Londonderry / Alderman Captain J.M. Wilson MC JP Chairman of Bridge Committee / Sir F. Henry Miller, Town Clerk. / Constructed AD 1931–1933."

A dressed granite parapet runs from the north-west end of this pier, curving around the corner of the screen wall below and terminating in a pier at the extreme north-west end of the bridge. It has an intermediate pier, and all three piers have roll-moulded tops and blind square recesses to their outer faces. The parapet is cut by two wrought-iron gates which once gave access to reinforced-concrete footbridges over the laneway below, leading to the now-demolished Tillie & Henderson shirt factory that formerly stood at this end of the bridge. A cast bronze plaque on the inside face of the north-west terminal pier reads:

"City of Londonderry / Craigavon Bridge / This tablet is erected to the memory of / M.A. Robinson M Inst CE / City Engineer 1909–1929 / to whose foresight was largely due / the successful initiation of the project / resulting in the construction of this bridge."

A number of modern steel posts have been erected on the footpath at this end to carry decorative hanging baskets. The north-west end of the downstream parapet has been replaced with a vertical steel railing.

Affixed to the screen wall at the north-west end is also a cast bronze plaque recording the 1968 conversion of the lower deck, which reads:

"City and County Borough of Londonderry / Craigavon Bridge Lower Deck Reconstruction / This scheme was opened on July 3rd 1968 / by his worship the Mayor of Londonderry. / Councillor W. Beatty BA JP / Chairman of Committee Councillor J.A. Canning / Town Clerk – R.H. Thompson FCA / City Engineer and Surveyor – J.C. Mackinder OBE, ERD, C Eng, M I Mun E / Consulting Engineers – Mott, Hay and Anderson / Main Contractor – Sir Lindsay Parkinson and Company Limited."

Materials and condition

The structural spans are of steel throughout. The deck surfaces are of reinforced concrete finished with tarmac. The railings and lamp standards are of cast metal. The screen and parapet walls are of granite block and random rubble sandstone, with concrete used in later alterations. Although some of the original parapets at the upper deck ends have been removed and replaced with vertical steel railings, and at least one lamp standard has been lost, all the main structural members appear to be original except for the lower deck abutments.