Construction
As part of the modernisation projects of the 1950s, a road bridge across the Tay had been considered for several years. In August 1958 a traffic census and test bores were taken to locate the most suitable crossing for the bridge.
The bridge was designed by William Fairhurst and construction began in March 1963 with the infilling of West Graving Dock, King William Dock and Earl Grey docks in Dundee. The construction was undertaken by Duncan Logan Construction Ltd. Controversially, construction required the demolition of Dundee's Royal Arch where Queen Victoria had entered the city on a royal visit. Rubble from the Victoria arch was used as foundations for the on-ramp. Furthermore, Dundee councillors at the time insisted that the architects amend their drawings so that the Tay Bridge landed on the Dundee side immediately in front of the newly constructed Tay House council offices. The councillors hoped that the incoming public would be suitably impressed. However, traffic chaos was soon apparent. Dundee's new waterfront development is seeing the demolition of Tay House (which stood for less than 50 years) and a re-alignment of the Tay bridge ramps.
The bridge consists of 42 spans with a navigation channel located closer to the Fife side. During the construction of the bridge, 140,000 tons of concrete, 4,600 tons of mild steel and 8,150 tons of structural steel was used. The bridge has a gradient of 1:81 running from 9.75 m (32.0 ft) above sea-level in Dundee to 38.1 m (125.0 ft) above sea-level in Fife.
The bridge took 3½ years to build at a cost of approximately £6 million. Following the installation of the final 65 ton girder on July 4, 1966, the completed bridge was officially opened by the Queen Mother on August 18, 1966. A newsreel of this is available in the British Pathe web archive. For four days, many took advantage of the toll-free period to cross the bridge.
Viewing platforms were once a feature of the Bridge, however they were removed in the 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Tay Road Bridge
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