Weight watching on Tayside
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THOMAS TELFORD, who designed the Menai suspension bridge and gave the Scots 1,000 miles of road to aid their escape to England, made one of his greatest errors of judgment when in 1819 he condemned Gen Wade's bridge at Aberfeldy, Tayside.
This masonry arch with a main span of 61ft was already 86 years old when Telford described it as having "very insecure" foundations and as "creditable to neither the skill nor the taste of the architect:' After nearly 250 years it is still capable of carrying modern traffic, including heavy lorries from a newly opened quarry nearby.
To make doubly sure that this fine bridge will continue to withstand constant pounding, 600 small reference points have been glued to it so that a detailed survey may be made every six months for the next three years. Bill Harvey, of Dundee University, is responsible for the work under a contract with the Transport and Road Research Laboratory.
The study should yield valuable information for assessing many other such bridges which might otherwise attract unjustified weight restrictions.