The Greyhound Bridge is a road-connection spanning the

River Lune The River Lune (archaically sometimes Loyne) is a river in length in Cumbria and Lancashire, England. Etymology Several elucidations for the origin of the name ''Lune'' exist. Firstly, it may be that the name is Brittonic languages, Brittonic ...

as it runs through

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

, England. It serves as the primary route northwards, on account of a one-way system that directs all southbound traffic over

Skerton Bridge Skerton Bridge is a road bridge carrying the southbound lanes of the A6 road (England), A6 road over the River Lune in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The bridge is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a d ...

. Originally built to carry a railway, it is the third bridge to stand on the present site and lies between the

Lune Millennium Bridge The Lune Millennium Bridge is a cable-stayed footbridge which spans the River Lune in Lancaster, England. It was designed by Whitby Bird and Partners, and built at a cost of £1.8m to commemorate the millennium of 2000. The bridge forms a "Y" ...

and Skerton Bridge.

History

The first bridge on the site was constructed out of laminated timber in 1848 to carry the

Morecambe Harbour and Railway Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

Company's new railway, linking the adjoining

Lancaster Green Ayre railway station Lancaster Green Ayre railway station was the Midland Railway's station in the city of Lancaster in England. The line between Green Ayre and Morecambe was used for pioneering experimental electrification via overhead wires. The station closed t ...

to Morecambe Harbour. That was replaced by a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

viaduct during 1862–64, and by the third and current bridge in 1911. Material salvaged from the demolition of the second bridge was used in the 1913 reconstruction of what is now the "Halton Narrow Toll Bridge", further up the

, on the same railway line. After the closure of the railway in 1966, the Greyhound Bridge was converted for use by road traffic and re-opened in 1972.

Significance

The structure is notable for its westward curve, onto the northern bank of the River Lune; a feature that has been prominent on the landscape, since at least the wrought-iron second incarnation of the bridge, completed in 1864. With overhead electrification of the Lancaster–Morecambe Line in 1908, it is very possible that the Greyhound Bridge may have been the first bridge in the United Kingdom to carry electrified rolling stock, owing to it being the only bridge on that section of line.

Closure

Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashire is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Blackburn with Dar ...

have stated that the bridge requires substantial maintenance in order to avoid a weight limit being placed on it. These works are anticipated to cost £3.7 million and are expected to result in the bridge being closed for 23 weeks between January and August 2018. During this time the nearby

will be adapted to carry vehicles in two directions. These changes have been criticised by local

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

users who feel that the removal of two sections of

bus priority Bus priority or transit signal priority (TSP) is a name for various techniques to improve service and reduce delay for mass transit vehicles at intersections (or junctions) controlled by traffic signals. TSP techniques are most commonly associa ...

lanes will increase journey times across the river. However, without these works, buses would not have been able to use the Greyhound bridge from 2019 due to the proposed weight restriction.

References

Bridges across the River Lune Bridges in Lancaster, Lancashire Transport in the City of Lancaster Bridges completed in 1911 {{UK-bridge-struct-stub