River Crossings

Many of Cass Hayward’s designs for river crossings have emanated from our value engineering initiatives applied to the construction challenge of new foundations near or within the watercourses and building at high level over them. Main spans then tend to be longer suiting composite construction for practicality and good appearance.

Our design for Simon de Montfort bridge over the River Avon in Evesham was the first of the contemporary “ladder” bridges constructed in the UK and this form was reused in paired decks for the M74 River Annan crossing with special jacking arrangements specified to avoid the use of uplift bearings. The design of the new River Derwent crossing was driven by avoidance of the flood plain at Raynesway near Derby and the Angel Way Bridge at Bargoed created a hybrid structure of composite deck with concrete arch to minimise the number of foundations in and around the deep cutting. The River Witham Bridge in Lincolnshire adopted load bearing permanent driven steel sheet piles for river foundations.