19th century Newhall Road Bridge gets 21st century makeover

A Sheffield bridge with a history dating back to the 17th century has been strengthened, repaired and restored by Amey. Newhall Road bridge over the River Don is one of 240 road bridges and culverts in Sheffield to be given a new lease of life thanks to investment linked to Sheffield City’s €2.5 billion Streets Ahead highway maintenance contract.
April 10, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
1889 and still going: Newhall Road Bridge over the River Don in Sheffield, England
A Sheffield bridge with a history dating back to the 17th century has been strengthened, repaired and restored by 2958 Amey.


Newhall Road bridge over the River Don is one of 240 road bridges and culverts in Sheffield to be given a new lease of life thanks to investment linked to Sheffield City’s €2.5 billion Streets Ahead highway maintenance contract.

The current steel structure was built around 1889 close to the location of the giant Hecla Works where manganese steel was developed. But the crossing’s history can be traced back several centuries to a time when it was a rural bridge for a packhouse, a warehouse used for curing tobacco or storing produce.

The five-month scheme was carried out Amey and tackled areas of corrosion to some of the steel structural elements as well as overall strengthening, explained Christopher Hampson, Amey structures manager.

“Although the bridge was perfectly functional, parts of the original steel trusses and a steel troughing underneath were corroded, partly as a result of its environment and road salts over the years.

“We carried out a large number of repairs to the steelwork. A number of the original rivets were replaced with new bolts, a new concrete slab was cast on the deck and it was fully resurfaced. The bridge was completely re-painted and the stonework restored.


“It was time consuming work because it is only once you have started that you discover extra areas that require attention. Now completed, the life of the bridge has been extended by many years,” said Hampson.

The government-backed Streets Ahead programme will help Sheffield improve roads, footpaths, street lighting and other highways infrastructure.

Amey will have strengthened 40 road bridges including other historic bridges that will allow the lifting of weight restrictions. With the main five-year core investment programme almost completed, Amey will carry out regular routine and preventative maintenance to all the city’s highway structures over the next 20 years.

Road Structures

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Poetry in motion
    August 9, 2018
    A heavy-lift operation by Roll-iT using Enerpac equipment delivered a bridge deck - with a poem engraved on the underside - to Antwerp’s old harbour Only when the deck of the new Londenbrug Bridge is raised do travellers see the poem by Antwerp poet Stijn Vranken. It is written large on the underside of the 300tonne prefabricated steel deck. People waiting for a ship to pass the raised bridge now contemplate the poem’s message about ships transporting goods and people to and from the four corners of the
    Read More
  • Highly relevant: Denmark’s asset management for bridges
    July 12, 2019
    A well-maintained road bridge network is vital to Denmark’s economy. David Arminas caught up with Niels Pedersen, head of bridges at the Danish Road Directorate Denmark, being a country mainly of islands, relies on its bridges and tunnels to help unify the nation culturally. It also means that they are vastly more important to the economic well-being of the nation than in most other states. The World Bank has classified Denmark as a high-income economy. In 2017 it ranked 16th globally in terms of gros
    Read More
  • Heijmans’ bright yellow Dynapacs get the green light at Schiphol
    August 5, 2016
    A damp and foggy morning at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. Some of the five runways are in normal use, but one of them shows a different kind of activity. At a slow but steady pace, a small army of bright yellow machines is repaving the surface. The project is being carried out by Heijmans, one of the largest road-building contractors in the Netherlands.
    Read More
  • Set the ALARM for repairs in England and Wales
    January 10, 2019
    More than 3,900km of roads in England and Wales will need essential maintenance within the next year, according to the annual ALARM survey* Cash-strapped local governments are reporting that the gap between the funds they received and the amount they needed for repairs and maintenance was almost €639 million. This equated to an average shortfall of €3.75 million for every authority. It would take 14 years to get local roads back into a reasonable steady state, but only if adequate funds and resources wer
    Read More

Highlighted Content