Clifton Bridge (Nottingham)

Clifton Bridge

Location Map ( geo)

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From:

Nottingham

To:

Clifton

County

Nottinghamshire

Highway Authority

National Highways

Opening Date

1955

Additional Information

Bridge Type:

Concrete Bridge

On road(s)

A52

Crossings related to the A52

A52 Bridge • Hanging Bridge

This article is about the bridge in Nottingham.
For other bridges with the same name, see Clifton Bridge.

Clifton Bridge is a large bridge crossing the River Trent to the west of Nottingham. It forms part of the Nottingham Outer Ring Road.

The crossing actually comprises two separate bridges. The original bridge, which carried four lanes of traffic, now carries the four southbound lanes, and one northbound lane. The second bridge, built adjacent to the original, carries three northbound lanes and the footpath.

History

After the Second World War, Nottingham suffered from a severe housing shortage. Therefore the city council bought land around Clifton village, and constructed a large housing estate, at the time it was the largest council estate in England, with a population of approximately 30,000 today. With the increase in traffic as the estate grew, it put pressure on Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Therefore in 1955 it was decided that a new bridge be built to connect Clifton and the south bank of the Trent, to Nottingham on the north bank.

The first bridge was opened to traffic on 5th June 1958 by Princess Alexandra^[1], having taken three years to build. It originally had only one traffic lane each way plus cycle track and footpath^[2]. At the time it was the longest pre-stressed concrete bridge in the country. It initially was part of B680 and provided a river crossing from the B679 at Clifton onto Queens Drive into the City Centre. It became part of A614 by 1964 following the extension of the Nottingham Outer Ring Road from the A453 Beeston Road at Lenton (now A6005) to the A606 at Edwalton.

A second parallel bridge to the east of the first bridge was added in 1972 to make a dual carriageway crossing.

In 1994 a survey found that 25% of the pre-tensioning cables had corrosion damage and some were breaking. The bridge was strengthened by post-stressing with external cables^[3].

In 2020, bridge defects were found on the eastern (southbound) bridge, which necessitated closure for remedial works to take place^[4].