Utting Avenue Bridge, Norris Green (Liverpool)
This disused railway bridge crosses Utting Avenue and Townsend Avenue. It crossed Carr Lane before Utting Avenue East was constructed.
See Geograph entry.
1930 'On page 696 of Engineering, vol. cxxix (1930), we
gave an illustrated description of the expeditious replacement of a railway bridge of the Cheshire Lines
Committee over Walton Hall-avenue, Liverpool. The
firm responsible, Messrs. Pearson and Knowles Engineering Company, Limited, Warrington, have recently carried out another similar, but even more expeditious,
operation. At Carr-lane, Norris Green, Liverpool, a
500-ton steel bridge was substituted for a 100-ton
structure, carrying the Southport line of the Cheshire
Lines Committee over a road which had been widened
on each side of the railway, which thus constituted
a dangerous bottle-neck. The rails on the old bridge
were removed during the night of Saturday to
Sunday, October 4 to 5, and the actual replacement
operations were commenced at 5 a.m. on October 5.
By means of eight Tangye hydraulic jacks, the old
structure was raised clear of its stone abutments and
the weight transferred to six steel trestles mounted on
a rail track laid in the roadway below. At 5.50 a.m.
the old bridge had been hauled out and stood on the
trestles some 45 ft. away from its original position.
The stonework which had previously supported the
old bridge was then demolished by the masonry contractors, in order to prepare the way for the new
bridge, which had previously been erected on trestles,
parallel with the structure to be replaced. At 6.50 a.m.
the work of hauling the new structure into position
was commenced, and was successfully accomplished
40 minutes later.
One hundred-ton hydraulic jacks were subsequently
brought into operation ; one end of the bridge was
raised, the carriages on which it had been conveyed
removed, and rocker bearings, each weighing 5 tons,
were drawn into position on the new abutment. At 9.25
this end of the bridge had been lowered on to its
permanent seatings. The opposite end of the bridge
was then raised, the carriages were removed as before,
and the masonry contractors proceeded to place in
position the pre-cast concrete blocks which support
the rail bearers. The expansion bearings were then
inserted, and the bridge lowered into its final position
at 11.20. A trial train was run over the bridge shortly
after noon. The new bridge has a length of 133 ft.,
a width of 31 ft. 6 in., and a depth of 23 ft. 6 in.'[1]