Wellington Street Bridge

Wellington Street Bridge in Kingston Upon Hull crosses the entrance lock between the marina and the River Humber. It is a double leaf asymmetric swing bridge. It was built in 1840 and is largely in its original form.

Each of the two bridge leaves fit within recesses in the lock wall (the tail wells) these act foundations for the bridge leaves. Each bridge leaf is supported on a tapered roller bearing which is mounted on a bed plate which is supported on the foundation. The rear wall of each of the tail wells are constructed of closely jointed masonry each of which form a circular shape and which accommodate the circular end of the tail of the bridge leaf.

The bridge carries a two-lane carriageway with a footpath on each side. A central kerb is provided between the traffic lanes and raised kerbs are provided between each traffic lane and its adjacent footpath.

Wellington Street Bridge General View

The deck of the bridge originally comprised two layers of 2 inch thick timber planks. The lower layer of timber planks are bolted to the upper flange of the main longitudinal cast iron beams. At the edge of the deck, the timber footpaths cantilever and are supported on cast iron brackets which are bolted to the exterior longitudinal cast iron beams.

The main load carrying members of each bridge leaf comprise six cast iron longitudinal beams. Each beam is a single cast piece. The longitudinal beams are similar to each other. In the closed position, when viewed from the waterway the soffit of the beams form an arch with the apex at the joint between the bridge leaves and with the springing above the edge of the lock wall at the tail well. The joint between the two leaves is not structural and each bridge leaf acts as a cantilever from its tail well to the centre of the waterway. In order to reduce weight and to reduce the section size to avoid cracking during casting, the beams have substantial voids in the webs. To the rear of the “springing”, the beams are of constant depth, again with substantial voids cast into the web. The edges of all of the voids are strengthened with additional thickening.

To the rear (tail) of the bridge, kentledge in the form of random masonry blocks is provided which is used to balance the bridge about the pivot point.

The rear beams are supported on a cast iron ring beam which in turn is supported by the tapered roller thrust bearing on which the bridge rotates to open and close. The rollers are cast iron and the roller paths appear to be wrought iron, they are supported on steel shims with concrete packed between.

Wellington Street Bridge Centring Pintle

A centring pintle is provided which ensures that the bridge rotates about the centre of the pivot point.

When swinging, the bridge is supported on the tapered roller bearing and if the kentledge balances the weight of the bridge, all of the rollers are equally loaded. If the kentledge does not balance the weight of the bridge, the rollers become unevenly loaded and the centring pintle has to carry the resulting sideways load.

Wellington Street Bridge Rollers and Track

When the bridge is in the road open position, as vehicles cross the bridge and pass towards the centre of the waterway, the load on the rollers of the tapered roller bearing increase substantially, the bridge tips and the reaction shoes at the “springing” of the arch shaped beams contact. This provides a reaction which is in line with the bottom boom of the beam. The horizontal component of this reaction is carried by an equal and opposite reaction which passes through the centring pintle.

An interesting part of the bridge is the method of articulation. There is another bridge in Liverpool designed by the same Engineer (Hartley) which was built at about the same time. Whilst a tapered roller bearing was used on both bridges, there are substantial differences between them.

Wellington Street Bridge Spider

Wellington Street Bridge uses a “spider” to centre the rollers, which are un-flanged and there is substantial bracing between the top of the centring pintle and the structure. The Liverpool Bridge uses a “cage” to centre the rollers which have internal and external flanges, there is no bracing to the centring pintle, just a cast iron beam.

Hartley Bridge at Liverpool General View and View of Centring Pintle

Wellington Street Bridge is currently parked out of use in the opened position. We have inspected the machinery and the structure of the bridge and assessed the work required to return the bridge to use by light traffic.