Medway Viaduct
Encyclopedia
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
near Rochester in north Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
M2 Motorway viaduct (old)
A six-lane (two London-bound, two coast-bound, two hard shoulder) bridge was opened in May 1963 as part of the construction of the M2 motorway. In addition, a footpath (actually a small service road) was placed on either side of the bridge as part of the North Downs WayNorth Downs Way
The North Downs Way is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Godalming, Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Kent Downs AONB.East of Boughton Lees, the path splits...
, offering panoramic views of the Medway Valley.
As part of the recent M2 widening, a second bridge was built alongside, to the south, to carry the London-bound carriageways (four lanes and a hard shoulder). The existing bridge was rebuilt into a four-carriageway road (coastbound). The south "footpath" is now closed, as it lies within the central reservation
Central reservation
On divided roads, such as divided highways or freeways/motorways, the central reservation , median, parkway , median strip or central nature strip is the area which separates opposing lanes of traffic...
at both ends, leaving only the north-facing footpath. Prior to this, the bridge had been undergoing extensive refurbishment and strengthening. This included the said footpaths being reduced in width and thus making the bridge narrower. The central span, which was made of concrete beams, was replaced with steel girders. The concrete beams were lowered down on to a river barge. Presumably, these would be broken up on land.
As part of the M2 widening, the bridges are now fitted with street lighting. This was the first time the bridge had lighting on it.
An image of the bridge without the central span can be seen on the link below.
The bridges pass over two railway lines: the Medway Valley Line
Medway Valley Line
The Medway Valley Line is the name given to the railway line linking and the Medway Towns with and onward to , and London St Pancras International...
(to Paddock Wood) and the Chatham Main Line
Chatham Main Line
The Chatham Main Line is a British railway line that runs from either London Victoria to Dover Priory / Ramsgate or London St Pancras to Faversham, with both services travelling via Medway...
(to Victoria).
During the construction of the new bridges, a support boat was positioned in the river. This is presumably as a safety requirement, should a member of the workforce get into difficulty near the river.
M2 Motorway viaduct (new)
This bridge is the newest bridge to cross the River Medway at this point.In 2003, this particular bridge won the Concrete Society’s Civil Engineering Category award for, "outstanding merit in the use of concrete". It was presented to Doka UK Formwork Technologies.
A small plaque can be seen on one of the upright support legs, on the Strood side.
A link below shows the winning certificate.
The rail-link viaduct
The western bridge carries High Speed 1 (HS1), the high speed rail link that connects LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with the Channel Tunnel
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
.
The rail viaduct is 1.3 kilometres long, making it the longest high-speed rail span in the world. The viaduct is a multi-span structure, with typical approach spans of 40.5 m, spanning the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
with a central navigation span of 152 m. The viaduct substructure is of reinforced concrete pier columns supported on bored piles. A unique feature of the columns is that they are in a "V" shape. This is to provide greater lateral support and stability in the event of two high-speed trains using their emergency brakes. (More orthodox vertical supports could, in a worst-case scenario, topple like dominoes.)
The bridge deck was pushed out from each bank of the river during construction, using hydraulic pistons.
On 4 September 2007, Eurostar
Eurostar
Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
9021 driven by Neil Meare crossed the viaduct at up to 200 miles per hour, during the record breaking inaugural run from Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
Gare du Nord
Gare du Nord
Paris Nord is one of the six large terminus railway stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines, including Paris Métro and RER...
to London St Pancras.