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Byker Metro Bridge


Byker Metro Bridge (also known as Byker Viaduct) was constructed 1978-1979 and was purpose built for the Tyne & Wear Metro system, which opened in 1980. The viaduct carries the metro over Ouseburn Valley between Newcastle city centre and Byker.

The Byker Viaduct (also known as the Byker Metro Bridge) is an 815 metre long curved 'S' shaped light railway bridge, which carries the Tyne and Wear Metro over the River Ouseburn in Newcastle upon Tyne. It carries the line from Manors Metro station in the city centre to the west, to Byker Metro station in the area of Byker to the east, over the lower Ouseburn valley, with the river emptying into the north side of the River Tyne, to the south.

Designed by Ove Arup and Partners, and built by John Mowlem & Co Ltd, construction began in 1976, and was completed in 1979, it was opened on 11th November 1982 as part of the St James to Tynemouth section of the Metro. It is 8.2m wide, and carries standard gauge double tracks up to 30m above the ground, with 18 spans up to 68.9m long, six of which are over the river valley; on the east side of the valley, the bridge continues as a lower elevated section. It was notable, in being the first such structure in Britain to be built using cantilevered concrete sections with joints glued with epoxy resin.

It was one of two major bridges built specifically for the Tyne and Wear Metro, the other being the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge crossing the River Tyne.

It is one of three high level bridges in close proximity making the same crossing, with the Ouseburn railway viaduct to the north and the Byker road bridge to the south. The bridge and elevated section form an S-curve, which takes the track over the Byker road bridge at its east end.

Text from Wikipedia, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (accessed: 22/09/2017).
Visit the page: Byker Viaduct for references and further details. You can contribute to this article on Wikipedia.

Ouseburn Bridges Byker Metro Station Ouseburn (river) Byker 1979 Historic Buildings and Monuments in Newcastle Tyne and Wear Metro
from Newcastle libraries (flickr)
046255:Byker Metro Bridge Newcastle upon Tyne City Engineers 1980

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from Newcastle libraries (flickr)
050505:Byker Metro Bridge Newcastle upon Tyne City Engineers 1986

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from TWAM (flickr)
Byker Viaduct

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from TWAM (flickr)
Byker Viaduct

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from Geograph (geograph)
Byker Metro Flyover

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from Geograph (geograph)
Byker Metro Bridge, from the Ouseburn

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Metro viaduct, Newcastle

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from Geograph (geograph)
Ouseburn Valley below the Metro Bridge

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Ouseburn flowing beneath the Byker Metro Bridge

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from Geograph (geograph)
Detail of Metro viaduct, Newcastle

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from TWAM (flickr)
Byker Viaduct

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from Flickr (flickr)
Winter, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne

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Metro Bridge, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne

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LONG-METRO-MESSAGE

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Metro Bridge across the Ouseburn Valley

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from Youtube (youtube)
Byker Bridge Byker Metro from the air using Mavic Pro

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from Youtube (youtube)
Byker Bridge by Metro.MOV

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Byker
  Co-Curate Page
Byker
- Overview About Byker Map Street View   Byker is an inner city electoral ward in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England. It is in the …

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