Goole Railway Swing Bridge
Goole Railway Swing Bridge
Goole Railway Swing Bridge (also known as the Skelton Viaduct) is a remarkable survivor from the great age of Victorian railway engineering. This Grade II* listed swing bridge, which carries the Hull and Doncaster line over the River Ouse, was built in 1869 to designs by Thomas Harrison and the great hydraulic engineer, W. G. Armstrong. It remains hydraulically operated by much of its 1860s machinery– one of the few surviving examples in the country – and the six spans constitute one of the largest wrought-iron bridges in the country.
Today, the bridge faces operational challenges including growing unreliability, declining lack of expertise for its maintenance and repair, and more frequent flooding events which risked a catastrophic flooding of the engine room and hydraulic mechanism. To combat these, Network Rail is carrying out repairs and modernisation.
We provided Network Rail with conservation and heritage engineering advice to understand the bridge’s history and significance and the evolution of its operational mechanism. Our Statement of Significance provided a comprehensive evidence base for discussions with Historic England and other heritage stakeholders, and helped develop and secure consent for sensitive proposals which will see almost all of the nationally-important historic mechanism retained in-situ. We are now helping Network Rail to discharge recording and interpretation conditions attached to the listed building consent.
Client: Network Rail