Bascule Bridge

Cass Hayward’s first movable bridge project was for the design of the Steelyard Cut dutch drawbridge in St. Katherine’s Dock, London. Also in London was the Belmouth Passage temporary bridge designed to carry service traffic over the dockland passage. Overhead actuation operation was arranged with strand jacks at an early stage to allow advance operation before being replaced by hydraulic cylinders. For export to the Middle East we designed three single leaf bascule bridges which have winch powered activation through overhead frames. Most recently Pont y Werin, (Bridge of the People) was designed to carry pedestrians and cyclists over the River Ely in Cardiff Bay and features four spans with a single lifting leaf of 32.85m driven by hydraulic cylinders rotating about trunnion bearings to provide a minimum clear navigation width of 20m.

Cass Hayward fulfilled the Project Verifier role for the design and construction of two new bascule bridges (for road and rail) for the Port River Expressway project in Adelaide and we were independent checkers for design of Chatham Dockyard Lifting Bridge and assessment of Lowestoft Port Bridge. We designed extensive refurbishment works for Redcliffe Way bascule bridge in the centre of Bristol and for the strengthening of the double leaf crossing of Poole Harbour.