Humber Bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Humber Bridge
View from south side
Carries	Motor vehicles (on the A15), pedestrians
Crosses	Humber
Locale	East Riding of Yorkshire/North Lincolnshire
Maintained by	The Humber Bridge Board
Design	Suspension
Longest span	1,410 metres (4,626 ft) (fourth largest in the world)
Total length	2,220 metres (7,283 ft)
AADT	100,000 vehicles per week
Opening date	To traffic on 24 June 1981 Officially on 17 July 1981
Toll	Car: £2.70 HGV: £18.30 Motorcycle: £1.20
Location within United Kingdom
Maps and aerial photos Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps Topographic map from TopoZone Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

The Humber Bridge is the fourth-largest single-span suspension bridge in the world, near Kingston upon Hull in England. It spans the Humber (the estuary formed by the rivers Trent and Ouse) between Barton-upon-Humber on the south bank and Hessle on the north bank, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Plans for a bridge were originally drawn up in the 1930s, and were revised in 1955, but work did not begin until 1972. The bridge was finally opened officially by the Queen on 17 July 1981. The consulting engineers for the project were Freeman Fox & Partners (now Hyder).

With a centre span of 1,410 metres (4,626 ft) and a total length of 2,220 metres (7,283 ft), the Humber Bridge was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world for 16 years.

1 Bridge Statistics
2 Incidents and suicides
3 Finances
4 Images of the Bridge
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Bridge Statistics

The bridge's surface takes the form of a dual carriageway with a lower-level footpath on both sides, although traffic is often restricted to one lane both ways. There is a permanent 50mph speed limit on the full length of the bridge.

Each tower consists of a pair of hollow vertical concrete columns, each 155.5 metres (510 ft) tall and tapering from 6 metres square at the base to 4.5 x 4.75 metres at the top. The bridge is designed to tolerate constant motion and bends more than three metres in winds of 80 mph (36 m/s). The towers, although both vertical, are not parallel, being 36 mm further apart at the top than the bottom as a result of the curvature of the earth.^[1]

The north tower is on the bank, and has foundations down to 8 metres (26 ft). The south tower is in the water, and descends to 36 metres (118 ft) as a consequence of the shifting sandbanks that make up the estuary.

There is enough wire in the suspension cables to circle the Earth nearly twice.

The bridge held the record for the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 16 years from its opening in June 1981 until the opening of the Great Belt Bridge in June 1997 and was relegated to third place with the opening of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in April 1998. It is now the fourth longest single-span suspension bridge after Runyang Bridge (China) which opened in 2005.

The road-distance between Hull and Grimsby was reduced by nearly 50 miles as a consequence of the bridge prior to the bridge opening, commuters would go from one bank to the other either by using the ferry that ran from Hull to New Holland, Lincolnshire or driving via the M62, M18 and M180 motorways, crossing the River Ouse near Goole (connected to the Humber) in the process. There was also a hovercraft service. Minerva and Mercury were used very briefly between Hull Pier and Grimsby Docks from 17 February 1968 to 21 October 1968, they both suffered mechanical failure at very regular intervals.

[edit] Incidents and suicides

More than 200 incidents of people jumping or falling from the bridge have taken place since it was opened in 1981. ^[2] Between 1990 and February 2001 the Humber Rescue Team launched its boat 64 times to deal with people falling or jumping off the bridge. ^[3]

Notable incidents include the cases of a West Yorkshire woman and her two-year-old daughter who fell off the bridge in 2005,^[4] a mother who killed herself and her 12-year old autistic son in April 2006,^[5] and that of a man jumping from the bridge to his death on the A63 road below in September 2006. As a result, plans have been considered to cage off, or introduce higher fencing along the walkways of the bridge; trials have been held, with cost cited as the reason for non-implementation so far.^[6]

Throughout the year many people commit or attempt to commit suicide on the Humber Bridge, so local NHS authorities have specialist counsellors and doctors on call.^{[citation needed]}.

Similar incidents happen at bridges all over the world.

[edit] Finances

The bridge has a toll charge of £2.70 (as of 23 April 2006) for cars. The Humber Bridge is the only major toll bridge in the United Kingdom to charge tolls to motorcycles (£1.20). Others such as the Forth Road Bridge, Severn crossings and the Dartford Crossing are all free. In 2004 a large number of motorcycles held a slow-pay protest, taking off gloves and helmets and paying the toll in large denomination bank notes. ^[7] Police reported a tailback of 4 miles as a consequence of the protest. Despite receiving 1000 letters in support of the removal of tolls, they remain in place for motorcycles.

In 1996, the British Parliament passed the Humber Bridge (Debts) Act 1996 to reorganise the Humber Bridge Board's debts in order to ensure the Bridge could be safely maintained. The Act wrote off over £400m of debt.

In 2006 a Private Member's Bill — sponsored by Cleethorpes Labour MP Shona McIsaac — relating to the Humber Bridge, was introduced into Parliament. The Humber Bridge Bill would have made amendments to the Humber Bridge Act 1959 "requiring the secretary of state to give directions to members of the Humber Bridge Board regarding healthcare and to review the possibility of facilitating journeys across the Humber Bridge in relation to healthcare". The aim was to allow people who travel from the Southbank to the Northbank for medical treatment to cross the bridge without paying the toll, and to allow the Secretary of State for Transport to appoint two members of the Humber Bridge board to represent the interests of the NHS. Even though the Bill received cross-party support (it was co-sponsored by Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, and supported by all other MPs representing North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire) it ran out of time later that year. ^[8]

In early 2007, users of the bridge began a campaign to persuade the Government to cancel the outstanding debt, and to enable the Bridge Board to reduce tolls. This included a petition^[9] and a website.^[10]

[edit] Images of the Bridge

View from the South Bank	View from the South Bank showing the curvature of the bridge	View from the North Bank	View from the Eastern walkway
View from the North Bank	Close up of Bridge Tower