Barnby Dun Lift Bridge - Barnby Dun, UK
Posted by: dtrebilc
N 53° 34.720 W 001° 04.510
30U E 627435 N 5938367
This lift bridge carries Fordstead Lane across the River Don Navigation.
Waymark Code: WMVQ92
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/17/2017
Views: 0
The River Don Navigation
Work to make the River Don navigable to enable bulk goods and raw materials to be carried more easily and cheaply started in 1722, working upstream and downstream from Doncaster. The work was carried out with a mixture of improved stretches of the river with side cuts to bypass existing weirs. One of these side cuts left the river at Eastwood Old Lock and rejoined the Don just upstream of Rotherham weir.
The Navigation at this point passes through a rural area which is mainly farmland, and most of the bridges are lift or swing bridges.
Most of the boats these days are leisure craft but there are still some commercial boats in use.
Barnby Dun is a village next to the Navigation and the road is busier than other that cross the navigation. Because of this there is a control tower next to the bridge which is often operated by Canal and River Trust personnel especially when commercial boats are expected. At other times when the tower is not staffed, there is a control pane for use by boaters who must have a British Waterways Key to operate it. Whichever method of control is used traffic lights stop the flow of road traffic across the bridge before it opens.
This version of the bridge replaced an earlier swing bridge dating from 1900. This new bridge was built to provide the only access for heavy loads to the nearby Thorpe Marsh power station, so the bridge was designed to carry abnormal loads of up to 180 tons gross weight.
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