January 30 2008

According to Glasgow City Council, the Clyde Arc bridge looks set to be closed to the public for the next six months following the discovery of a crack in another of the steel supports.

The crack was discovered last Thursday in the wake of the initial accident, which saw one of the 14 support struts break, and is said to have occurred within 24- 48 hours of its discovery.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: “It became evident from speaking to those carrying out the inspection that the crack had occurred in the aftermath of the first incident. It wasn’t something that could’ve been overlooked during the initial inspection.”

Work is currently being carried out from two cranes on either side of the bridge, with a barge also due to be brought in and a pontoon to be build in the river, to allow engineers access from multiple angles.

Architecturescotland.co.uk has also learned that engineers working on the bridge today have put a temporary hanger in the space where the first support came down, and that within the next few weeks a specially designed and fabricated steel framework will be put in place to facilitate the work.

The ‘Squinty bridge’ was designed to allow for the removal of one support at a time, however the impact of two support failures is unclear.

The Council spokesman did say that it was too early to tell what had caused the incidents but commented: “The fact that there has been one failure and one crack found in essentially the same part starts to lead the investigation in a certain direction…they will have to take all these things into account.”

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