A Plan To Revive Severn Railway Bridge at Sharpness

[madhattie]

From the Bristol Evening Post: http://tinyurl.com/b9vyu

NEW CALL FOR THIRD SEVERN CROSSING

13:00 - 03 August 2005

A Campaign to build a third bridge across the River Severn has been revived by a veteran councillor.

It was more than 20 years ago that Bill Hobman first put forward his idea for a crossing on the site of a former railway bridge, which used to link Sharpness, near Berkeley, with Lydney but which was destroyed as a result of a tanker tragedy.

Now he has been joined by other councillors in setting up the Third River Crossing Committee to investigate the proposal further.

Representatives from the economic partnership Gloucestershire First, parish councils, Stroud District Council and the Gloucestershire Association of Parish and Town Councils are also involved in the scheme.

Councillor Hobman reckons having a new road and a rail crossing would cut congestion and solve many problems.

It would cut the amount of traffic having to use local roads to go down to the Severn Bridge and Second Severn Crossing or up to Gloucester to travel across the river.

Many householders living along the routes currently used would also benefit from a reduction in heavy traffic thundering past their homes.

Mr Hobman, a Lydney district and town councillor, even said a new bridge could harness tidal power to generate electricity.

He said: "I believe most people would be in favour of an additional Severn river crossing but we would like to hear their views.

"My suggestion is that we should use the site of the former railway crossing and create a road and rail bridge."

David Redgewell, of transport campaign group Transport 2000, said: "There is a need for a second rail crossing of the river Severn and another bridge would also ease commuting.

"The money would have to be found and support obtained from the Government and the Welsh Assembly but it certainly warrants further investigation."

The old bridge stretched for half a mile over the river but was destroyed after two tankers heading for Sharpness docks collided in thick fog on October 25, 1960.

One tanker was carrying petrol and the other was laden with oil. Both were operated for Shell by John Harker Ltd of Sharpness. There was a violent explosion as they smashed into the bridge, leaving a gaping hole 100 yards long in the structure.

People living in Sharpness said they could hear the cries for help from the stricken crews of the tankers as the fuel blazed on the river.

Five crewmen died in the tragedy but the two skippers, James Dew of the MV Wastdale, and George Thompson of MV Arkendale, managed to swim to safety.

The disaster eventually led to the demolition of the bridge.

In 1997, a ú20 million bid for National Lottery funding to rebuild the bridge for rail traffic was made but the application was rejected.

Commuter Mike Stafford said: "It makes perfect sense to build a third crossing over the Severn. I have been travelling from the Forest of Dean into Bristol daily for the last three years and there is definitely an increase in commuter traffic. If the old Severn Bridge is closed due to bad weather or an accident it can add up to an hour on to my journey by going over the Second Severn Crossing."

[horace]

This idea was about even before the old bridge got got demolished.
Again i can never see it happening the economics just dont work. for one it would not be a road rail crossing, can you imaging the amount of compensation that would have to be paid to the second severn crossing for the loss of toll revenue because of a competing route. So that leaves a rail only option, yes the severn tunnel needs a relief line but to build a new railway bridge and all the approaches is going to cost, real ball park in excess of 100million.
There is about much chance of it happening as there is of the S&D.J.R. coming back to life again.
I like realistic proposals for brining rail back to life and would support even border line proposals on environmental grounds. But a proposal like this is in my view neither of these. and using it for tidal power, an environmental disaster, i am sure that the wildfowl trust at slimbridge would have rather a lot to say on a proposal like this.

[science]

The railway missed an opportunity to gain an extra crossing of the Severn when the second bridge was built. Could space have been found to put in two tracks? The bridge sits next to the route of the tunnel, on the Welsh side the toll booths are almost next to Severn Tunnel Junction and on the English side the ramps are next to the tunnel entrance.

Oh, the benefits of hindsight!

[horace]

Science, there is a grade all the way from patchway to get down to the tunnel entrance. to get to the bridge level you would need a new grade all the way from patchway to the bridge. That would need a huge swathe of land along side the existing railway to enable that to happen, prime land at that as well. I dont think Railtrack would have enough money in its budgets for the next 10 years to build all of that.
To put the level differance in perspective, one of the peirs of the second severn crossing actually straddles the tunnel, go out there an look you can see under the pier and see the piles that go down to support it, they are placed each side of the tunnel.
The bridge as it stands at the moment cost more than ú250 million to build. and that was 1995 money. Add rail lines to it, that would of doubled at least, it would need to be a double decker bridge, so the extra wind loading the extra foundations extra everything. then add the costs of the approaches, as i said above forget it would never of been viable.
In my view what would of been viable and should have been given more thought was to repair the old bridge when it was still standing, but that didn't happen, and after 40 years it is way to late to reconsider.

[APW]

This will be available for a few days only:

!gone!

[APW]

A news report and an old movie:

BBC Gloucestershire- http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/fo ... ster.shtml

Movie (3MB)- http://www.movietone.com/assets/BMN0627 ... 745_32.mov

[madhattie]

A news report and an old movie:
Movie (3MB)- http://www.movietone.com/assets/BMN0627 ... 745_32.mov

Excellent movie clip! I'd not seen that before.

It would be interesting to know where the spans that were supposedly sold ended up.

[madhattie]

The Bristol Evening Post carried a nice item about this bridge yesterday. (while not publishing my article about the Dramway... )

Online Here