The Department for Transport (DfT) will provide €39.6 million towards the restoration of the historic 389m-long, 17m-wide bridge across the River Tyne linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead.
The highly distinctive, through-arch steel bridge, whose longest span is nearly 162m, took around two and half years to build, opening in February 1928.
Restoration will cost a total €46.5 million, with the rest coming from Newcastle and Gateshead city councils, according to a report by the BBC. Some of the money will go towards improving the A167 highway, sometimes called the Newcastle Central Motorway. Repairs to the historic bridge commenced in the third quarter of 2023 but it was not until the DfT funding package was secured that the complete improvement programme could commence fully.
The department noted that the last major repair work was completed in 2001, while the A167 had not received upgrades since opening in 1975.
About 70,000 vehicles use the bridge daily. Initial work began in September last year with work estimated to take four years. Restoration will include repainting the complete steel elements .The local governments from Newcastle and Gateshead also contracted work for critical structural repairs, including steel and concrete fixes, bridge joint replacements, drainage improvements, waterproofing and resurfacing and parapet protection.
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle, is on the River Tyne’s north bank, opposite Gateshead to the south and is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and north-east England. The historic bridge structure formerly carried the important A1 Great North Road through the centre of Newcastle but the route was diverted in the 1970s to reduce congestion in the city.
