The Byker Viaduct (also known as the Byker Metro Bridge) is a curved 'S' shaped light railway bridge, which carries the

Tyne and Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The network opened in ...

over the River

Ouseburn The Ouseburn is a small river in Newcastle upon Tyne, England that flows through the city of Newcastle upon Tyne into the River Tyne. It gives its name to the Ouseburn Valley and the Ouseburn electoral ward for Newcastle City Council elections ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. It carries the line from

Manors Metro station Manors is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the Shieldfield area in Newcastle upon Tyne. It joined the network on 14 November 1982, following the opening of the fourth phase of the network, between Tynemouth and St James via Wallsend. The ...

in the city centre to the west, to

Byker Metro station Byker is a Tyne and Wear Metro station, serving the suburb of Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England. It joined the network on 14 November 1982, following the opening of the fourth phase of the network, between Tynemouth and St Ja ...

in the area of

Byker Byker is a district in the east of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne. Home to the Byker Wall estate, made famous by TV series ''Byker Grove'', Byker’s population was recorded at 12,206 in the 2011 census. Byker is borde ...

to the east, over the lower Ouseburn valley, with the river emptying into the north side of the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...

, to the south. Designed by

Ove Arup and Partners Arup (officially Arup Group Limited) is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment ...

, and built by

Mowlem Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006. History The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generati ...

, construction began in 1976 and was completed in 1979, it was opened on 11 November 1982 as part of the to section of the Metro. It is wide, and carries standard gauge double tracks up to above the ground, with 18 spans up to long; six of the spans are over the river valley, with the remainder continuing on the east side of the valley as a lower elevated section. It was notable, in being the first such structure in Britain to be built using cantilevered concrete sections with joints glued with

epoxy resin Epoxy is the family of basic components or cured end products of epoxy resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide functional group is also coll ...

. It was one of two major bridges built specifically for the Tyne and Wear Metro, the other being the

Queen Elizabeth II Bridge The Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurro ...

crossing the

."Meet Your Metro" 1978 information booklet produced by Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive. It is one of three high level bridges in close proximity making the same crossing, with the Ouseburn railway viaduct to the north and the Byker road bridge to the south. The bridge and elevated section form an S-curve, which takes the track over the Byker road bridge at its east end.

References

External links

*{{commons category inline, Byker Metro Bridge
Constructing the Byker Viaduct. North East Film Archive
- Contemporary film of the construction. Railway bridges in Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear Metro Bridges completed in 1979 Buildings and structures in Newcastle upon Tyne