About Dornoch Firth Bridge
The Dornoch Firth Bridge is a road bridge over the Dornoch Firth, carrying traffic between Tain and Dornoch. HistoryIt was built for the Scottish Office. There had been recent substantial improvements of the A9 between Inverness and Tain, including the cable-stayed Kessock Bridge at Inverness in 1982. The Dornoch Bridge was to be the final link in the chain. Tenders were open to bid from 1986. 40 companies showed an interest in the contract. Ove Arup and Crouch Hogg Waterman of Glasgow produced a set of initial design parameters for companies to build. The joint-venture chosen to build the bridge put in a quote for £9. 5 million, and won the contract in early 1988. DesignEach of the 21 spans is about 44 metres long. The Project Manager was Nigel Beaney of Christiani & Nielsen. Prestressed concrete rather than steel was chosen as the material to improve the life of the bridge. The design had to be approved by the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland. ConstructionIt was built by a joint venture of Christiani & Nielsen. It cost £13. 5 million. At the time it was one of the longest bridges in Europe built with the cast-and-push method, or incremental launch. The bridge deck was built in a temporary factory 20 metres south of the southern end of the bridge. Each section of the bridge was pushed with 600 tonnes of hydraulic force over PTFE bearings on the top of the bridge supports. The launch nose section had a light steel composition to reduce the cantilever moment as it was inched over an open span. Each deck section was constructed as around 21 metres in length – half a span. The concrete used welded mat reinforcement. The pre-stressing of each section had 38 Macalloy bar tendons of 40 mm thickness. The sections would be cast on a Monday morning and pushed on a Friday, this later being on a Thursday. Each deck section weighed around 14, 000 tonnes.
Dornoch Firth Bridge Description
The Dornoch Firth Bridge is a road bridge over the Dornoch Firth, carrying traffic between Tain and Dornoch. HistoryIt was built for the Scottish Office. There had been recent substantial improvements of the A9 between Inverness and Tain, including the cable-stayed Kessock Bridge at Inverness in 1982. The Dornoch Bridge was to be the final link in the chain. Tenders were open to bid from 1986. 40 companies showed an interest in the contract. Ove Arup and Crouch Hogg Waterman of Glasgow produced a set of initial design parameters for companies to build. The joint-venture chosen to build the bridge put in a quote for £9. 5 million, and won the contract in early 1988. DesignEach of the 21 spans is about 44 metres long. The Project Manager was Nigel Beaney of Christiani & Nielsen. Prestressed concrete rather than steel was chosen as the material to improve the life of the bridge. The design had to be approved by the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland. ConstructionIt was built by a joint venture of Christiani & Nielsen. It cost £13. 5 million. At the time it was one of the longest bridges in Europe built with the cast-and-push method, or incremental launch. The bridge deck was built in a temporary factory 20 metres south of the southern end of the bridge. Each section of the bridge was pushed with 600 tonnes of hydraulic force over PTFE bearings on the top of the bridge supports. The launch nose section had a light steel composition to reduce the cantilever moment as it was inched over an open span. Each deck section was constructed as around 21 metres in length – half a span. The concrete used welded mat reinforcement. The pre-stressing of each section had 38 Macalloy bar tendons of 40 mm thickness. The sections would be cast on a Monday morning and pushed on a Friday, this later being on a Thursday. Each deck section weighed around 14, 000 tonnes.