iaduct

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Viaduct

Laigh Milton Viaduct in Ayrshire is the oldest surviving railway bridge

in Scotland

Ancestor

Trestle bridge, Box girder bridge

Related

None

Descendant

None

Carries

Expressways, highways, streets,railroads

Span range

Short (multiple)

Material

reinforced concrete, prestressed

concrete, masonry

Movable

No

Design effort

medium

Falseworkrequired available for use, since viaducts are all

composed of low bridges.

A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans[1] for crossing a valley or a gorge.[2][3][4][5] The
term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road andducere, to lead. The ancient Romans did not
use the term; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct.[4] Like the Roman aqueducts,

many early viaducts comprised a series of arches of roughly equal length. Viaducts may span land
or water or both.
Contents
[hide]

1 Usage
o

1.1 Over land

1.2 Over water

2 Land use below viaducts

3 Past and future

4 Gallery

5 References

Usage[edit]
The longest viaduct in antiquity may have been the Pont Serme which crossed wide marshes in
southern France.[6] In Romance languages, the word viaductrefers to a bridge which spans only land.
A bridge spanning water is calledponte.

Over land[edit]
Viaducts are commonly used in many cities that are railroad centers, such
as Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham, London, andManchester. These viaducts cross the large railroad
yards that are needed for freight trains there, and also cross the multi-track railroad lines that are
needed for heavy railroad traffic. These viaducts keep highway and city street traffic from having to
be continually interrupted by the train traffic. Likewise, some viaducts carry railroads over large
valleys, or they carry railroads over cities with many cross-streets and avenues.
Many viaducts over land connect points of similar height in a landscape, usually by bridging a
river valley or other eroded opening in an otherwise flat area. Often such valleys had roads
descending either side (with a small bridge over the river, where necessary) that become inadequate
for the traffic load, necessitating a viaduct for "through" traffic.[7] Such bridges also lend themselves
for use by rail traffic, which requires straighter and flatter routes.[8] Some viaducts have more than
one deck, such that one deck has vehicular traffic and another deck having rail traffic. One example
of this is the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto, Canada, that carries motor traffic on the top deck
as Bloor Street, and metro as the Bloor-Danforthsubway line on the lower deck, over the steep Don
River valley. Others were built to span settled areas and crossed over roads beneath - the reason for
many viaducts in London.

Over water[edit]
Viaducts over water are often combined with other types of bridges or tunnels to cross navigable
waters. The viaduct sections, while less expensive to design and build than tunnels or bridges with
larger spans, typically lack sufficient horizontal and vertical clearance for large ships. See
the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River
Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, in
collaboration with architect Norman Robert Foster, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with
one pier's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft)slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft)
shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened
to traffic two days later. The viaduct DanyangKunshan Grand Bridge in China is the longest bridge
in the world according toGuinness World Records as of 2011.[9]

Land use below viaducts[edit]

Light industrial units under railway arches in South Harrow, London.

"Deansgate Locks" bars underDeansgate Metrolink station inManchester.

Where a viaduct is built across land rather than water, the space below the arches may be used for
businesses such as car parking, vehicle repairs, light industry, bars and nightclubs. In the United
Kingdom, many railway lines in urban areas have been constructed on viaducts, and so the
infrastructure owner Network Rail has an extensive property portfolio in arches under viaducts.[10]

Past and future[edit]

Elevated expressways were built in major cities such as Boston (Central
Artery),Seoul, Tokyo, Toronto (Gardiner Expressway).[11] Some were demolished because they were
ugly and divided the city.[citation needed] However, in developing nations such as Thailand, India (Delhi-

Gurgaon Expressway), China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, elevated expressways have been built and
more are under construction to improve traffic flow, particularly as a workaround of land shortage
when built atop surface roads.[citation needed] In Indonesia viaducts are used for railways in Java and also
forhighways such as the Jakarta Inner Ring Road. The Coule verte Ren-Dumont inParis, France is
a disused viaduct which was converted to an urban park in 1993.

Gallery[edit]

Viaduct (also a trestle bridge) of Tren a las Nubes in Salta,Argentina.

Renmin Lu Viaduct of the city of Guangzhou(formerly Canton) is the first

viaduct built inmainland China.

The Patapat Viaduct inIlocos Norte, Philippines

The Canton Viaduct is an example of a blind arcade cavity wall.

Knaresborough viaduct is an elegant four-span bridge standing 78 ft high

above the River Nidd.

A 21-arch bridge spanning Yorkshire'sWharfe valley, engineered for the

Leeds and Thirsk Railway circa 1850.

A derelict viaduct known as Lobb Ghyll, built by the Midland Railway in

1888 to connect Ilkleyand Skipton.

The Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto is an example of a viaduct with

multiple decks.

Railway viaduct crossing the Santa Ana River inRiverside, California,

United States. Built in 1903.

The Cypress Street Viaduct was an example of a double decker freeway

in Oakland, California which collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta
earthquakeand was later demolished.

The Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle, Washington, United States. To be

demolished in 2016 (or possibly later) after the tunnel being built to replace
it is complete.

The Millau Viaduct, and the town of Millau, France on the right. It is the
tallest bridge in the world.

The Garabit Viaduct is a steel truss arch bridge.

The Lewis and Clark Viaduct connectsDowntown Kansas City,

Missouri with downtownKansas City, Kansas.

Crumlin Viaduct, on the Taff Vale Extension of the West Midland Railway,
1855.

References[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Viaduct.
Look up viaduct in
Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

1.

Jump up^ merriam-webster

2.

Jump up^ The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

3.

Jump up^ WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

4.

^ Jump up to:a b oxforddictionaries

5.

Jump up^ Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th

Edition

6.

Jump up^ Colin OConnor: Roman Bridges, Cambridge University

Press 1993, ISBN 0-521-39326-4, p. 99

7.

Jump up^ Brownlee, Christy (March 2005) "Taking the high road:
France's new bridge helps a small town dodge trafficand set a new
world record" SuperScience 16(6): pp.1215;

8.

Jump up^ Davidsen, Judith (April 1993) "A new "lite" rail viaduct
formula: Norman Foster designs a rapid-transit viaduct for Rennes,
France" Architectural Record 181(4): p.26;

9.

Jump up^ Longest bridge, Guinness World Records. Last accessedd

July 2011.

10. Jump up^ http://property.networkrail.co.uk/industrialunitstolet.aspx

11. Jump up^ Toronto built, then demolished an expressway

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Viaducts

Bridges

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