Queen Alexandra Bridge
| Queen Alexandra Bridge | |||||||||
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| County | |||||||||
| Durham | |||||||||
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| Sunderland | |||||||||
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| 1909 | |||||||||
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| On road(s) | |||||||||
| B1539 | |||||||||
The Queen Alexandra Bridge crosses the River Wear on the in Sunderland, carrying the B1539. It is a steel truss bridge with four asymmetric spans, one across the river and the other three across low-lying land on either bank.
History
Construction
The bridge was built to allow easier access for road and rail traffic to the Port of Sunderland from the coalfields to the west. The bridge was completed in 1909 and opened to traffic in June of that year. Like the nearby High Level Bridge it was built as a double-decker bridge, with railway tracks on the upper deck and a roadway below; however the rails fell out of use in the early 20th century and were subsequently removed. The bridge was extensively renovated in 2005 and 2006 at a cost of £6.3m.
Classification
The Queen Alexandra Bridge was originally classified as the B1290, which it remained until it was upgraded to primary A1231 when the new radial route with that number was completed in the 1970s. In 2018, the A1231 was re-routed onto the newly built Northern Spire and the bridge was assigned its current number.
| Queen Alexandra Bridge | ||
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