ADAM VIADUCT

ADAM VIADUCT, WALLGATE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1061327
Date first listed:: 23-Mar-2001
List Entry Name:: ADAM VIADUCT
Statutory Address:: ADAM VIADUCT, WALLGATE

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1061327
Date first listed:: 23-Mar-2001
List Entry Name:: ADAM VIADUCT
Statutory Address 1:: ADAM VIADUCT, WALLGATE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: ADAM VIADUCT, WALLGATE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Wigan (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SD5717905124

Details

SD50NE 24/2/10079 23-MAR-01

WALLGATE Wigan (South,off) Adam Viaduct

II

Under bridge, set within longer railway embankment. 1946 by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway; chief engineer W K Wallace; contractors Leonard Fairclough Limited. Reinforced pre-stressed pre-cast deck units on in-situ reinforced concrete piers set on old foundations. Pre-cast concrete parapet units, and original concrete handrails and standards on east side. Four spans, the end two 29'9" wide, those in the centre 29'4" and 28'6" wide, with a deck formed of `I'-beams 32" deep. The small space between the top flanges of the `I'-beams which supported the tracks is grouted, and high-tensile tie roads, tightened by the nuts at each end, tie the beams together so that they act together under live load.

The Adam Viaduct is internationally understood to be the earliest pre-stressed railway bridge in England. Only examples in Switzerland are considered to be earlier. The LMS had established a pioneering research institution in 1932 at Derby, where it built extensive testing laboratories in 1935. It developed the use of pre-cast concrete in the 1930s because it was strong, long-lasting and cheap, and because pre-cast units could be installed on the line quickly. But the large depth of the beams required for spans of up to forty feet made the technique of limited use for under bridges. Pre-stressed beams were used for emergency repairs in the war, but this is their first full-scale, designed use.

Sources Arthur Dean, Prestressed Concrete applied to the Construction of Railway Bridges and Other Works, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Railway Division, vol.44, 1951, p.14 Concrete and Constructional Engineering, vol.42, 1947, pp.305-8 F G Thomas, Prestressed Concrete, n.d.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 489510
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.