Â鶹Éç

« Previous | Main | Next »

The Collapse of the Cleddau Bridge

Post categories: ,Ìý,Ìý

Phil Carradice Phil Carradice | 09:29 UK time, Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Anyone who drives up the A477 from south Pembrokeshire to the northern part of the county will pass over the magnificent structure of the Cleddau Bridge.

Cleddau River in the fog. Photograph by George Johns.

Cleddau River in the fog. Photograph by George Johns.

They will wonder at the glorious views down Milford Haven towards the sea, but they will probably never realise that this was the site of the last major bridge disaster in the United Kingdom.

It happened during the construction process. The bridge was - and is - of a . In other words it was built in sections or self contained boxes that were trundled out along the partially completed bridge and simply lowered onto the front of the construction.

On 2 June 1970, as one of the box girder sections for the bridge was being positioned and lowered into place, there came a deafening rumble and the bridge sections on the Pembroke Dock side of the river plummeted to the ground. Four workmen were killed and five more were injured in the disaster.

It could have been so much worse. The bridge passed virtually over the top of Pembroke Ferry, a tiny village on the southern shore of the , but when it collapsed the debris and the falling box girder sections missed the houses by just a few feet. It was a very lucky escape.

The River Cleddau has always divided the county of Pembrokeshire in two and before the bridge was built there were only two ways of moving from one part of the county to the other: either by driving the long way round through narrow lanes and B roads or by taking a ferry boat across the often choppy waters of the river.

From the mid 1850s the Admiralty, who ran the dockyard at Pembroke Dock, agreed to allow steam driven ferry boats to dock at their jetty and fitting out berth of Hobbs Point.

These ferries would then take people - dockyard workers amongst them - across the river to Neyland. The ferry boats ran for many years, the county council taking over the process in 1950.

The ferry boats became famous on both sides of the river, vessels like the Alumchine, Lady Magdalene and Cleddau King plying their way across the water at all times of the day and night.

When the Admiralty closed the dockyard at Pembroke Dock in the years after World War One part of the establishment was taken over by the RAF as a flying boat base. At one time this was the largest flying boat base in the world.

The huge Sunderland aircraft that lay moored out in the river for many years provided something of a hazard for the ferry boats, particularly when they were taxiing for landing or take off.

As the 20th century unfolded it became clear that the ferries, despite their interest and sentimental appeal, could not hope to cope with the growing density of traffic and in the mid 1960s it was decided to build a bridge across the Cleddau.

Actually there were to be two bridges, the first one across the main waterway and a smaller one spanning the creek at Westfield Pill in order to link to the main A477. The contract for construction was awarded to the firm of AE Farr and the estimated cost was to be £2.1 million. The aim was to complete the building process by spring 1971.

The collapse of the bridge on 2 June 1970 and the trauma of the event brought construction to a sudden halt. An inquiry was immediately called.

After much deliberation it was decided that the disaster had been caused by inadequate supports on the pier that was lowering the box girder section into place. There was also, apparently, a failure of organisation and communication on the building site itself.

As a result of the disaster and the subsequent inquiry new British Standards for the design and construction of Box Girder bridges were brought in. These seem to have been effective as there have been no further disasters involving box girder bridges - and, it is hoped, there never will be.

The Cleddau Bridge was eventually finished at a cost of £11.83 million, rather more than had been originally foreseen.

It was opened to traffic on 20 March 1975 and the ferry boats that had, for so many years, plied their trade across the river were duly towed away for scrapping.

In the first year of operation 885,900 crossings were made on the new Cleddau Bridge - considerably more than would ever have ventured onto the ferry boats.

The bridge is now a crucial part of the infrastructure of south Wales but we should never forget the cost of its creation, in both financial terms and, more importantly, in human life.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 2.

    My mother was on Barrack Hill when the Bridge collapsed. She remembers the sound as it crashed into the river.

  • Comment number 3.


    That was a terrible tragedy when the bridge collapsed during construction Phil. The completed bridge is a memorial to those men who lost their lives. It was a sobering experience to drive under the fallen span to Pembroke Ferry to see the sheer scale of what had happened.
    Magnificent structure that the bridge is, it was sad to see the passing of the ferries that had plied the waters of the Haven for so long. I have a photograph of the completed bridge with the Cleddau King sitting at a mooring off the entrance to Barnlake Pill, her useful days at an end.
    The previous Ferry boat, the Cleddau Queen I think was the last steam driven paddle-wheel vessel built in Britain – In Hancock’s Shipyard in Pembroke Dock. I believe the father of one of my fellow back row members in ‘our’ rubgy team, Phil, was Chief Shipwright when she was built, and my Grandfather carved the builders half model of the hull and ‘lofted’ the full sized drawings.
    I don’t remember it Phil, but believe that a ferry from up river also plied the waters which the bridge now spans, from Langum via Landshipping and Lawrenny to Hobbs Point. Do you know of it?

  • Comment number 4.

    I don't know of the specific ferry from Llangum but I do know that there were ferries from various parts of the northern shore of the Haven in the days when the dockyard was at its height - I guess we're talking 1890s. Like you I remember the Cleddau King and Queen. When I first started teaching I lived in Pembroke Dock but taught in Milford. I used to take the ferry from Hobbs Point to Neyland every day, praying there'd be mist or fog - if they couldn't see the other side the ferries wouldn't run!

  • Comment number 5.

    I was an apprentice welder with Hancocks shipbuilding company , working at the royal dockyard in Pembroke Dock when the Milford Haven bridge collapsed on the 2nd June 1970,all we could see was red dust and the sound of sirens. When the work resumed in rebuilding the Cleddau bridge in 1973, I was fortunate to get employment as a welder on the box section construction, and had two very happy years , and made a lot of good friends,,I was the youngest to start on the bridge project ,some 38 years have gone bye and many a good tradesmen have passed on,but not forgotten.....

  • Comment number 6.

    I was a 9yr at St Mary's School at the time of the collapes and I can still remember the noise it made. I was also to find out later that week, one of the man killed was the husband of one of my teachers. It was a very sad time but this delay resulted in a few more years of traveling to Neyland on the Cleddau King or Queen which I loved and missed once the bridge opened. I think they should bring the ferry back if only in the summer months for the holiday makers....they would see the marvels of the bridge from a different view

  • Comment number 7.

    Was this the same company involved in the construction of the south portion of Barton High Level bridge in Manchester ?? where the girder work collapsed during erection due to insufficient support in the temporary scaffolding tower, again with loss of life.....
    Not exactly a good safety record for this company with the collapse of Cleddau bridge steelwork due to same reported problem of poor site organisation and communication just as was the case at Barton high level bridge site.....

Ìý

More from this blog...

Â鶹Éç iD

Â鶹Éç navigation

Â鶹Éç © 2014 The Â鶹Éç is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.