Parkhead Viaduct is a railway viaduct in

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

, West Midlands,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The original viaduct was a wooden structure erected in 1850 to carry the

Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot JunctionThe nearby settlement is spelt ''Wolvercote'' and a later station on the LNWR Bicester line follows that spelling. ...

over Parkhead Locks on the

Dudley Canal The Dudley Canal is a canal passing through Dudley in the West Midlands of England. The canal is part of the English and Welsh network of connected navigable inland waterways and forms part of the popular Stourport Ring narrowboat cruising ro ...

, near to the southern mouth of the

Dudley Tunnel Dudley Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Dudley Canal Line No 1, England. At about long, it is now the second longest canal tunnel on the UK canal network today. ( Standedge Tunnel is the longest, at , and the Higham and Strood tunnel is no ...

. The current brick viaduct was built in 1880 and it is believed that the original wooden structure is still encased within its successor. Use of the viaduct had fallen by the late 1960s due to the closure of passenger stations on the route, but the line remained open until 19 March 1993, when the section of the railway between

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

and

Brierley Hill Brierley Hill is a town and Ward (electoral subdivision), electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands (county), West Midlands (originally in Staffordshire), England. It is located south of Dudley and north of Stourbr ...

was closed. The most recent train believed to have crossed the viaduct was a cable laying train on 1 July 1993, nearly four months after the line's closure. The section of track over Parkhead Viaduct was removed in about 1995, with most of the track between Highgate Road and Blowers Green Road following in 1998 due to the construction of a new road bridge over the line nearby. The structure of the viaduct remained intact after the railway’s closure but fell into disrepair and required major strengthening and refurbishment to carry the

Wednesbury Wednesbury ( ) is a market town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England; it was historically in Staffordshire. It is located near the source of the River Tame, West Midlands, River Tame and ...

extension of the

West Midlands Metro The West Midlands Metro is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The network has List of West Midlands Metro tram stops, 33 stops with a total of of track; it currently consists of a single r ...

tram network. The viaduct forms part of the second phase of this route, which is expected to open in either 2025 or 2026.http://www.stourbridgelineusergroup.info/campaigns.html SLUG Campaigns

References

Railway bridges in the West Midlands (county) Rail transport in Dudley History of the West Midlands (county) Bridges completed in 1880 {{UK-bridge-struct-stub