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Creagan Bridge

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Creagan Bridge
Location Map ( geo)
A828 Creagan Bridge - Coppermine - 18816.jpg
Cameraicon.png View gallery (11)
From:  Creagan Inn
To:  Dalachulish
County
Argyll
Highway Authority
Transport Scotland
Opening Date
1903, 1999
Additional Information
Length:  150m (492 ft 2 in)
On road(s)
A828
Crossings related to the A828

The Creagan Bridge was originally built in 1903 as a Railway bridge, carrying the Ballachulish Branch of the Callander and Oban Railway. The line was largely financed and operated by the Caledonian Railway, who subsequently absorbed the C&O. It was originally intended to be the southern part of an Oban - Inverness line, but bickering between the 3 companies operating along the route led to most of the project being abandoned.

Following closure of the railway in March 1966, the bridge lay semi-derelict for over 30 years before the project to convert it for road use got under way. The strutcure had to be completely rebuilt to take a road, with the old steel truss deck removed, the piers reduced in height and then a new steel girder and concrete deck installed over the top. The roads at either end were also realigned and roundabouts installed to connect the new road over the bridge with the old road around the loch. On the south shore, the old road still passes under the bridge, whilst on the north shore the old line of the road can be followed in part in the trees to the north of the roundabout, but rock blasting to change the levels has destroyed part of it.

signage for the flood diversion

The new bridge was opened on 21 June 1999 by Sarah Boyack, Transport Minister, cutting off a five mile stretch of the old A828 road around the head of Loch Creran. One of the main drivers behind the project was the problems of the old road flooding, which was managed by a series of warning signs and a diversion along a private drive past a house. Obviously this was hardly a suitable solution for a trunk road!

The first VIP guests to cross the new road bridge were Mary MacArthur, 97, and Donald Carmichael, 98, who had been present at the opening of the railway bridge in 1903.

The old road is still fully open, although the majority of traffic uses the northern section. This provides the quicker route from the settlements in Glen Creran to the A828, whilst the southern section only passes a couple of properties.

Ferry

Although never a vehicle crossing, a pedestrian ferry did ply across Loch Creran for many years until the early 20th Century. Leading out from the car park for the Cregan Inn is an old stone slipway, cut into the rocks, but on the southern shore there is no such slipway, the boat apparently just nosing onto the beach. The opening of the railway in 1903 took away a lot of the ferry's traffic, and while it appears to have carried on until 1914, it ceased during World War One, and was never resumed.




Creagan Bridge
Related Pictures
View gallery (11)
A828-Loch Creran - Coppermine - 11506.jpgA828-Loch Creran - Coppermine - 11505.jpgA828-Loch Creran - Coppermine - 11504.jpgA828-Loch Creran - Coppermine - 11501.jpgCreagan Bridge Rebuilding - Geograph - 300104.jpg


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