ERSKINE BRIDGE, across the Clyde.
ACCESS : The bridge is part of the A898 road connecting West Dunbartonshire with Renfrewshire and carries both motor vehicles and cyclists. It also provides a great vantage point for pedestrians to view the Clyde below. From the Kilpatrick Braes carpark, Old Kilpatrick, at the sports facilities you can walk onto the bridge. To get to this point, come off Station Road, take the Mount Pleasant Drive turn-off and double back to the carpark.
///acclaim.homecare.cherish Centre of the bridge.
///sharpens.postcard.snacks Pedestrian access to the bridge from Old Kilpatrick.
The Erskine Bridge is a multi span cable-stayed box girder bridge spanning the River Clyde. As well as crossing the Clyde, the bridge also crosses the Forth and Clyde Canal and the North Clyde railway line. A small part of Kilpatrick railway station is situated underneath the bridge at the north side. On completion the bridge replaced the Erskine to Old Kilpatrick ferry service. [Wiki].
From below, as when walking at the Saltings, the structure looks so very spindly, but this is an illusion created by the shapes and proportions. As with all major bridges there is constant maintenance.
Remember queuing to pay the toll fee?
It is a great place to see the Clyde and surrounding areas. When you rush past as a motorist you miss this. The bridge can be reached as a pedestrian from both sides. From Old Kilpatrick you can walk up from the Recreation Grounds reached from Mount Pleasant Drive. There is very limited parking here. Use Station Road up from Dumbarton Road, but before reaching the A82, turn left and then left again to pass below it and up to the sports fields. This is a brilliant place to watch the sun set over the Clyde with Dunglass Castle and Dumbarton Rock in the distance.
A view from across the Clyde with the vegetation of the Saltings.
The elegant sweep of the bridge from the side footways.(The rails have since been raised).
There are some good views from the bridge. in this case towards Dumbarton Rock. You can just make out Dunglass Castle and the Bell Memorial obelisk before it.
Erskine Bridge as it hovers next to upper tenenment windows on Dumbarton Road.
In the last few years a major project was carried out with state of the art technology right under our noses. Well, under the Clyde. Instead of running the gas pipeline across the Erskine Bridge it was laid under the river alongside the bridge. The Erskine Bridge Pipeline Replacement project for SGN involved the replacement of the existing pipe crossing between Kilpatrick TRS and the Erskine Bridge Block Valve.
The 1km River Clyde Crossing was completed using Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) techniques. The drill was launched from land to the rear of St.Patrick’s Curch.
The 85m crossing of the Network Rail North Clyde electrified railway line at Kilpatrick Railway Station was completed using micro tunnelling techniques. To mitigate the risk associated with the challenging mixed ground conditions, the pipe jack was completed using an Earth pressure Balance (EPM) slurry machine. The Micro Tunnel Boring Machine (MTBM) was launched from a 8.5m diameter segmental concrete launch shaft, and received in a 5m diameter segmental concrete reception shaft. On completion of the shafts, the pipe was installed on completion of the tunnel. [Murphy]. Even what you cannot see (or quite understand) can be very interesting if brought to your attention.
MUPRHY website : https://www.murphygroup.com/projects/erskine-bridge-pipeline-replacement
WIKIPEDIA : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_Bridge
