The Jamestown Viaduct is part of the northern approach to the

Forth Bridge The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It crosses the hamlet of Jamestown and the village of

North Queensferry North Queensferry is a historic coastal village in Fife, Scotland, situated on the Firth of Forth, from Edinburgh city centre. Located on the North Queensferry Peninsula, it is the southernmost settlement in Fife. The town derives its name fro ...

in Fife.

History

It was constructed between 1887 and 1890, and listed as a Grade B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 2004. In 2005, the viaduct was strengthened during an eight-day closure of the railway. of steel and of high strength

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

were used to add a reinforced concrete slab underneath the track, in order to improve the load-carrying capacity to

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

's standards. The work was worth around , and engineered by Corus and carried out by

Mowlem Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. The company was established as ''John Mowlem and Co.'' by John Mowlem and initially worked on behalf of various local authorities across London ...

. 20,000

man-hour A man-hour or human-hour is the amount of work performed by the average worker in one hour. It is used for estimation of the total amount of uninterrupted labor required to perform a task. For example, researching and writing a college paper ...

s were worked during the period of closure, which coincided with a "possession" of the Forth Bridge.

Design

It has four main

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

girder spans, supported by three sandstone piers. As well as the four steel spans, there is a stone arch at each end of the viaduct. The steel spans are long, and are at a skew of 70° The spans consist of twin

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

girders sitting on the piers, and on top of the truss cross-girders supporting steel deck plates, with a ballasted track. The viaduct carries the line crossing the

, from

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and the north of Scotland, and carries a significant volume of both passenger and freight rail traffic, which previously included transporting coal to Longannet Power Station prior to its closure in 2016. there were up to 200 train movements a day and loads of 27 million tonnes annually. It spans the B981 public road and the former branch railway to North Queensferry and Rosyth. It runs close to and nearly parallel to the

A90 road The A90 road is a major north-to-south road in eastern Scotland, running from Edinburgh to Fraserburgh, through Dundee and Aberdeen. Along with the A9 road (Scotland), A9 and the A82 (road), A82 it is one of the three major north–south tr ...

, but the viaduct has a slight curve to the east.

References

External links

{{commons category Category B listed buildings in Fife Listed bridges in Scotland Viaducts in Scotland Railway bridges in Scotland Bridges in Fife Bridges completed in 1890 1890 establishments in Scotland