Reconstruction of the Vastern Road Bridge, Reading Station
Our speaker was Dick Watts who was the Western Region Civil Engineer responsible for the design of the new bridge required to increase the road capacity to six lanes. This was necessary to enable the construction of the Inner Distribution Road (IDR) which was intended to provide a circular road around Reading Town Centre. Reading Council financed the construction as it was carried out at their request.
The bridge is immediately to the East of Reading Station. Little is known about the original 1840 bridge which carried the railway over a stream and narrow road. The bridge existing in 1970 dated from 1895 with some modifications in 1965 to cater with the provision of Platform 4A following the closure of Reading Southern Station. Planning for the bridge commenced in 1971. The construction requirement was that there was to be minimum disruption to road and rail traffic meaning that normal bridge construction design was not possible. At a late stage in the design a requirement of and platform (4B) was identified and this had to be incorporated into the design.
Construction started in 1973. To achieve the height requirements it was necessary to lower the road whilst keeping the railway open. This enabled piling of foundations to be carried out on the embankments either side of the bridge. It was also possible to use some of the foundation of the older bridge to support the centre of the new bridge. The bridge steel work was constructed in Derbyshire and each section transported by road to Reading. These section were then rolled into place under the existing railway tracks using a huge number of three inch ball bearings. Final construction work was completed over two weekends in April 1975 and the Bridge opened on the 7th May 1975 on time and to Budget.
The bridge was widened as part of the Reading Station redevelopment of 2011-2013 which needed the Southern Terminus platforms to be increased to three now numbered 4,5 and 6. This necessitated additional steel arches to the match the original ones. There was originally a footpath along the southern side of the bridge which was lost as part of the new construction work. Although the new steel work is identical to the original there has been some loss in the appearance of the bridge.
Thanks to Dick Watts for a very interesting and informative presentation