Viaduct

Viaduct

The 1812 Laigh Milton Viaduct in Ayrshire – the oldest surviving

railway bridge in Scotland

Ancestor Trestle bridge, Box girder bridge

Related None

Descendant None

Carries Expressways, highways, streets, railways

Span range Short (multiple)

Material reinforced concrete, prestressed

concrete, masonry

Movable No

Design effort medium

Falsework required available for use, since viaducts are all

composed of low bridges.

A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans for crossing a valley, dry or wetland, or
forming an overpass or flyover.[1][2][3][4][5]
The term is conventional for a rail flyover as opposed to a flying junction or a rail bridge which
crosses one feature.
The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere, to lead. The ancient Romans did
not use the term; it is a nineteenth-century derivation from an analogy with aqueduct.[4]
Like the Roman aqueducts, many early viaducts comprised a series of arches of roughly equal
length.

Over land[edit]
The longest in antiquity may have been the Pont Serme which crossed wide marshes in southern
France.[6] At its longest point, it measured 2,679 meters with a width of 22 meters.
Viaducts are commonly used in many cities that are railroad centers, such
as Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham, London and Manchester. 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 carries rail traffic. One example
of this is the Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that carries motor traffic on the top
deck as Bloor Street, and metro as the Bloor-Danforth subway line on the lower deck, over the
steep Don River valley. Others were built to span settled areas, crossing over roads beneath—the
reason for many viaducts in London.

Over water[edit]

The Glenfinnan Viaduct, a great example of viaducts in the UK

Viaducts over water make use of islands or successive arches. They are often combined with other
types of bridges or tunnels to cross navigable waters as 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 Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China is the longest bridge in the
world according to Guinness World Records as of 2011.[9]

Land use below viaducts[edit]

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

"Deansgate Locks" bars under Deansgate Metrolink station in Manchester.

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] In
Berlin the space under the arches of elevated subway lines is used for several different purposes,
including small eateries or bars.