The
Humber Bridge, near
Kingston upon HullKingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
, England, is a 2,220 m (7,283 ft) single-span
suspension bridgeA suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
, which opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. It is the fifth-largest of its type in the world. It spans the
HumberThe Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
(the
estuaryAn estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
formed by the rivers
TrentThe River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
and
OuseThe River Ouse is a river in North Yorkshire, England. The river is formed from the River Ure at Cuddy Shaw Reach near Linton-on-Ouse, about 6 miles downstream of the confluence of the River Swale with the River Ure...
) between
Barton-upon-HumberBarton-upon-Humber or Barton is a small town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary, and at the end of the Humber Bridge. It lies east of Leeds, southwest of Hull and north northeast of the county town of Lincoln...
on the south bank and
HessleHessle is a town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, situated west of Kingston upon Hull city centre. Geographically it is part of a larger urban area which consists of the city of Kingston upon Hull, the town of Hessle and a number of other villages but is not part of the...
on the north bank, connecting the
East Riding of YorkshireThe East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...
and
North LincolnshireNorth Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber in England. For ceremonial purposes it is part of Lincolnshire....
– both of which were previously in the non-metropolitan county of
HumbersideHumberside was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber Estuary, created from portions of the East and West ridings of Yorkshire and parts of Lindsey, Lincolnshire...
.
, the bridge carried an average of 120,000 vehicles per week.
The toll is £3.00 each way for cars (higher for commercial vehicles), which makes it the most expensive toll crossing in the United Kingdom.
History
Prior to the bridge opening, commuters would go from one bank to the other either by using the
ferryA ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
that ran between Hull and
New Holland, North LincolnshireNew Holland is a small village, civil parish and port on the Humber estuary in the Borough of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England. It has a population of 955.-History:...
or driving via the
M62The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...
, M18 and
M180The M180 motorway is a short but major motorway in England from junction 5 on the M18 motorway in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster to a point close to Humberside Airport some from the ports of Immingham and Grimsby and the east coast and provides access for major routes to Cleethorpes,...
motorways, crossing the
River OuseThe River Ouse is a river in North Yorkshire, England. The river is formed from the River Ure at Cuddy Shaw Reach near Linton-on-Ouse, about 6 miles downstream of the confluence of the River Swale with the River Ure...
near
GooleGoole is a town, civil parish and port located approximately inland on the confluence of the rivers Don and Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England...
(connected to the Humber) in the process. There was also a short-lived hovercraft service; Minerva and Mercury linked Hull Pier and Grimsby Docks from February to October 1969, but suffered frequent mechanical failures.
Plans for a bridge were originally drawn up in the 1930s, and were revised in 1955, but work did not begin until 26 July 1972.
The Humber Bridge Act, promoted by Kingston Upon Hull Corporation, was passed in 1959. This established the Humber Bridge Board in order to manage and raise funds to build the bridge and buy the land required for the approach roads.
However raising the necessary funding proved impossible until the
1966 Hull North by-electionThe Hull North by-election of 27 January 1966 was held after the death of Labour Member of Parliament Henry Solomons on 7 November 1965. The seat was retained by the Labour Party. This has been attributed to the announcement of the construction of the Humber Bridge by the government during the...
. To save his government, Labour Prime Minister
Harold WilsonJames Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
prevailed upon his
Minister of TransportThe Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
Barbara CastleBarbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn , PC, GCOT was a British Labour Party politician....
to sanction the building of the bridge.
Dismay at the long wait for a crossing led to the writing by Christopher Rowe of a protest song entitled "The Humber Bridge".
The bridge opened to traffic on 24 June 1981. It was opened officially by Elizabeth II on 17 July 1981. The consulting engineers for the project were Freeman Fox & Partners — now
Hyder ConsultingHyder Consulting is a multi-national advisory and design consultancy with particular specialisation in the transport, property, utilities and environmental sectors. The firm employs approximately 4,200 people across the UK, Europe, Germany, Middle East, Asia and Australia and has been listed on the...
. The main contractor was
Sir William Arrol & Co.Sir William Arrol & Co. was a leading Scottish civil engineering business founded by William Arrol and based in Glasgow. It built some of the most famous bridges in the United Kingdom including the Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London.-Early history:...
at that time part of
Northern Engineering IndustriesNorthern Engineering Industries plc was a British engineering firm, which for over 10 years was one of the largest employers on Tyneside. It was based in Gosforth in Newcastle upon Tyne.-History:...
plc.
With a centre span of 1410 metres (4,626 ft) and a total length of 2220 metres (7,283 ft), the Humber Bridge was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world for 16 years. The road-distance between
HullKingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
and
GrimsbyGrimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...
was reduced by nearly 50 miles (80 km) as a consequence of the bridge.
Bridge statistics
The bridge's surface takes the form of a
dual carriagewayA dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
with a lower-level foot and cyclepath on both sides, although traffic is often restricted to one lane both ways. There is a permanent 50 mi/h speed limit on the full length of the bridge.
Each tower consists of a pair of hollow vertical concrete columns, each 155.5 m (510 ft) tall and tapering from 6 m (20 ft) square at the base to 4.5 by 4.75 m (14.8 by 15.6 ft) at the top. The bridge is designed to tolerate constant motion and bends more than 3 m (10 ft) in winds of 80 mph (129 km/h). The towers, although both vertical, are 36 millimetres (1.4 in) farther apart at the top than the bottom due to the curvature of the earth.
The total length of the suspension cable is 71000 kilometres (44,117.5 mi).
The north tower is on the bank, and has foundations down to 8 m (26 ft). The south tower is in the water, and descends to 36 m (118 ft) as a consequence of the shifting sandbanks that make up the estuary.
The bridge held the record for the world's
longest single-span suspension bridge for 16 years from its opening in July 1981, until the opening of the Great Belt Bridge in June 1997, and was relegated to third place with the opening of the
Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in April 1998. It is now the fifth longest single-span suspension bridge after two longer span bridges opened in China, the
Xihoumen BridgeThe Xihoumen Bridge The 5.3-kilometre-long suspension bridge connection has a 2.6-kilometre-long main bridge with a central span of 1,650 metres. The approaches total 2.7 kilometres. When it opened, there was only one bridge with a larger span, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan...
and the
Runyang Bridge. It remains the longest bridge in the world that one can cross on foot or by bicycle. The bridge twice forms part of the route of the Humber Bridge
half marathonA half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...
.
Incidents and suicides
During construction of the bridge, the road deck sections were floated up on barges then hoisted into place by cables. During one of these lifting operations some of the cables on one of the road deck sections failed, leaving the section hanging vertically. The section was, however, subsequently rescued and used.
More than 200 incidents of people jumping or falling from the bridge have taken place since it was opened in 1981; only five have survived. Between 1990 and February 2001 the Humber Rescue Team launched its boat 64 times to deal with people falling or jumping off the bridge.
Notable incidents include the cases of a
West YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
woman and her two-year-old daughter who fell off the bridge in 2005,
a mother who killed herself and her 12-year old son with
Fragile X SyndromeFragile X syndrome , Martin–Bell syndrome, or Escalante's syndrome , is a genetic syndrome that is the most commonly known single-gene cause of autism and the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability...
in April 2006,
and that of a man jumping from the bridge to his death on the
A63 roadThe A63 is a major road in Yorkshire, England between Leeds and Hull.-Leeds – Howden:The route out to Selby is shadowed by the Leeds-Selby railway....
below in September 2006. As a result, plans were announced on 26 December 2009 to construct a
suicide barrierA suicide barrier is a barrier on a bridge , observation deck or other structure designed to prevent people from attempting suicide by deliberately jumping...
along the walkways of the bridge; design constraints were cited as the reason for non-implementation before this time.
Finances
The bridge has a
toll chargeA toll bridge is a bridge over which traffic may pass upon payment of a toll, or fee.- History :The practice of collecting tolls on bridges probably harks back to the days of ferry crossings where people paid a fee to be ferried across stretches of water. As boats became impractical to carry large...
of £3.00 for cars. The Humber Bridge is the only major toll bridge in the United Kingdom to charge tolls to
motorcycleA motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
s (£1.20); others such as the
Severn crossingSevern crossing is a term used to refer to the two motorway crossings over the River Severn estuary between England and Wales. The two crossings are:*The Severn Bridge *The Second Severn Crossing...
s and the
Dartford CrossingThe Dartford - Thurrock River Crossing, Dartford River Crossing is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, connecting Dartford in the south to Thurrock in the north, via two road tunnels and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. It opened in stages, the west tunnel in 1963, the east tunnel...
are free. In 2004, a large number of motorcyclists held a slow-pay protest, taking off gloves and helmets and paying the toll in large denomination bank notes.
Police reported a tailback of 4 miles (6 km) as a consequence of the protest. Despite receiving several letters in support of the removal of tolls, they remain in place for motorcycles.
In 1996, the British Parliament passed the
Humber Bridge (Debts) Act 1996The Humber Bridge Act 1996 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the Act was to give power to the Secretary of State for Transport to write off debts payable to the British Government by the Humber Bridge Board, operators of the Humber Bridge. The Act was necessary as...
to reorganise the Humber Bridge Board's debts in order to ensure the Bridge could be safely maintained. Although a significant proportion of the debt was suspended in that refinancing arrangement there was no "write off" of debt and the suspended portion is being gradually re-activated as the Bridge Board pays off the remainder of the active debt.
In 2006 a
Private Member's BillA member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
— sponsored by Cleethorpes Labour MP
Shona McIsaacShona McIsaac is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Cleethorpes from 1997 to 2010...
— relating to the Humber Bridge, was introduced into Parliament.
The Humber Bridge Bill would have made amendments to the Humber Bridge Act 1959 "requiring the secretary of state to give directions to members of the Humber Bridge Board regarding healthcare and to review the possibility of facilitating journeys across the Humber Bridge in relation to healthcare". The aim was to allow people who travel from the Southbank to the Northbank for medical treatment to cross the bridge without paying the toll, and to allow the Secretary of State for Transport to appoint two members of the Humber Bridge board to represent the interests of the NHS. Even though the Bill received cross-party support (it was co-sponsored by Shadow Home Secretary
David DavisDavid Michael Davis is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Haltemprice and Howden...
, and supported by all other MPs representing North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire) it ran out of time later that year.
A protest at the bridge on 1 September 2007 was supported by the local Cancer Patients Involvement Group, the
Road Haulage AssociationThe Road Haulage Association Ltd is a UK trade association which represents members of the road haulage industry, together with allied businesses. The RHA has been in continuous existence for more than fifty years...
, Yorkshire and Humberside MEP
Diana WallisDiana Paulette Wallis is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber. Wallis was first elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and in 2009....
and local business and council representatives. The government responded to the petition on 14 January 2008, stating that "Concessions or exemptions from tolls on the Humber Bridge are a matter for the Humber Bridge Board."
In October 2008, a joint campaign was launched by the
Scunthorpe Telegraph,
Hull Daily Mail and
Grimsby Telegraph to abolish the fee for crossing the Humber. The papers' A Toll Too Far campaign garnered much support from councillors and MPs serving Lincolnshire and Humberside and was launched in response to a mooted increase in the cost of bridge crossings. The campaign's aim was not only to stave off any potential increase in crossing charges, but to ultimately see the costs abolished. A reduction to a £1 charge for bridge crossings was a sought-after alternative. Thousands of readers backed the campaign with a paper and an online petition.
A public inquiry into the tolls was held in March 2009 by independent inspector Neil Taylor. In July 2009, the
Department for TransportIn the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
announced that it had decided not to allow the proposed increase. Transport Minister
Sadiq KhanSadiq Aman Khan is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Tooting since 2005, succeeding Tom Cox as the Labour MP for the seat...
said he did believe it was right for the tolls to be raised in the current economic climate. In October 2009, the
governmentHer Majesty's Government is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining Ministers...
approved a £6 million grant for
maintenanceMaintenance, repair, and operations or maintenance, repair, and overhaul involves fixing any sort of mechanical or electrical device should it become out of order or broken...
costs, which meant that there would be no toll increase before 2011 at the earliest, by which time tolls would have been frozen for five years.
The Humber Bridge Board applied again to the Department of Transport in September 2010, to raise the tolls from April 2011, but the Government ordered a public inquiry to be held into the application. A three day public inquiry was held in
HullKingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
in early March 2011.
Following the recommendation by the planning inspector the Government gave approval, on 14 June 2011, for the increase to go ahead. The toll was raised on 1 October 2011, at which point it became the most expensive toll crossing in the United Kingdom. The
Severn BridgeThe Severn Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the River Severn between South Gloucestershire, just north of Bristol, England, and Monmouthshire in South Wales, via Beachley, a peninsula between the River Severn and River Wye estuary. It is the original Severn road crossing between England and...
and
Second Severn CrossingThe Second Severn Crossing is a bridge which carries the M4 motorway over the River Severn between England and Wales, inaugurated on 5 June 1996 by HRH The Prince of Wales to augment the traffic capacity of the original Severn Bridge built in 1966...
charge a toll of £5.70, but this is only collected in one direction.
In the 2011 Autumn Statement on 29 November, the
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
,
George OsborneGeorge Gideon Oliver Osborne, MP is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in...
, announced that the Government had agreed to reduce the debt on the bridge by £150 million, which would allow the toll for cars to be halved to £1.50.
External links
Alternate coordinates: 53.706361°N 0.450182°W