Wansford Bypass Bridge
| Wansford Bypass Bridge | |||
| Location Map ( geo) | |||
 | |||
| |||
| Location | |||
| Wansford Bypass | |||
| County | |||
| Cambridgeshire | |||
| Highway Authority | |||
| National Highways | |||
| Opening Date | |||
| 1925 | |||
| On road(s) | |||
| A1 | |||
| Crossings related to the A1 | |||
A1 Bridge (East Linton) • Swing Bridge (Tyne) • Coquet Viaduct • Blaydon Bridge • Alnwick Viaduct • Wentbridge Viaduct • Tempsford Bridge • Stainby Road Bridge • A1 Blaydon Bridge • Winthorpe Bridge • Dunglass Bridge • Royal Tweed Bridge • Berwick Bypass Bridge • Wrestlers bridge • Stamford Bypass Welland Bridge • Tower Bridge (Cockburnspath) | |||
The narrow medieval bridge over the River Nene at Wansford (known as Wansford Bridge) was a great hindrance to the increasing traffic using the Great North Road (the later A1) in the 1920s. The A1 is the major route from London to Edinburgh.
The 1929 Bypass bridge
A new bridge was constructed between 1925 and 1928 to the east of the medieval bridge. It was opened on 22 March 1929 along with the bypass. The Consultant Architect was Maxwell Ayrton and Associate Engineer was Sir Owen Williams. It was a similar design to his Spey Bridge of the same period. Contractor was Aubrey Watson and his firm. The bridge had a main span of 110 feet and flood arch spans of 50 feet either side, and was 40 feet wide. Cost was £33,000. It was built of mass concrete in order to conform with the old-world character of the local architecture.
The 1975 Bypass bridge
The 1929 bridge continued as a single carriageway bottleneck until 1975 when a second bridge was built to the east. This formed a new southbound carriageway and the 1929 bridge became the northbound carriageway.
Links
Listing entry for 1929 bridge: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1331276