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Dee Bridge (Queensferry)

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Dee Bridge
Location Map ( geo)
A494 bridge over the River Dee in 2019- Geograph - 6184933.jpg
Dee Bridge in 2019. The adjacent The Blue Bridge is in the background
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From:  Queensferry
To:  Garden City
Location
Queensferry
County
Flintshire
Highway Authority
National Highways
Opening Date
2 March 1962
Contractor
John Howard and Co.
Additional Information
Bridge Type:  Girder Bridges
Engineer:  Mott, Hay and Anderson
On road(s)
A494
Crossings related to the A494
This article is about Dee Bridge in Queensferry.
For other Dee Bridges, see Dee Bridge
.


Dee Bridge or Queensferry Bridge is a girder bridge across the River Dee on the A494 near Queensferry, Flintshire. It was built to improve road communication between North Wales and North-west England. It superceded the adjacent single carriageway The Blue Bridge, a former bascule bridge built in 1926, which was renumbered to B5441.

Bridge and Bypass

The new bypass and bridge in 1963

There was one project to construct the bridge and the Queensferry Bypass. This provided a 1.5 mile dual carriageway from Higher Shotton (adjacent to Dee View) to Drome Corner, north-east of Garden City, then an at grade roundabout with A548. Carriageways were 24 feet wide.

Work commenced on 29 July 1960 and it was envisaged that it would open by August 1961. However there were weather delays because of a persistently wet period over the winter of 1961/62. It was opened on 2 March 1962 by Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport who cut the big white tape across the road at 12.40. He then spent the next 5 minutes in the middle of a surging crowd chopping the ribbon into pieces with his silver scissors and handing the bits out to bystanders as souvenirs. A bronze plaque was unveiled in the middle of the bridge.

The total cost of bridge and bypass was £900,000. Traffic censuses on the old bridge showed about 20,000 vehicles a day during the holiday period.

Bridge Detail

There are three spans. The centre span was designed as a lifting span if big ships started using the River Dee again. The lifting machinery was not fitted though.

The steel beam bridge had a width of 80 feet.

Links

Bridge renewal plans




Dee Bridge (Queensferry)
Other nearby roads
Queensferry
A55 • A494 • A548 • A550 • B5126 • B5129 • B5441 • Ffordd Gogledd Cymru • Flintshire Leisure Tour • M56 • T84 (Britain)
Crossings of the River Dee (Wales)
Pont Rhyd-sarn • Pont y Llan • Pont Mwnwgl-y-llyn • Pont Fawr LLandderfel • Pont Corwen • Carrog Bridge • Kings Bridge • Llangollen Bridge • Trevor Bridge • Newbridge • A5 Bridge • Overton Bridge • Bangor-on-Dee Bypass Bridge • Holt Bypass Bridge • Chester Bypass Bridge • Dee Bridge (Chester) • Grosvenor Bridge •  • Dee Bridge (Queensferry) • The Blue Bridge • Flintshire Bridge


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