A BID for listed status is being launched for the Kingston Bridge as the structure turns 50 today.
The Glasgow bridge was opened half a century ago on June 26, 1970 by the Queen Mother after three years of construction and a cost of £11 million – the equivalent of £180m today.
Spanning a length of 270 metres, the bridge is more than 40 metres wide and 20 metres tall.
Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: “The Kingston Bridge has become an iconic landmark in Glasgow over the half-century it’s been in operation.
“The crossing played its part in taking a significant amount of traffic off the city centre streets and paved the way for the pedestrianisation of Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street and Argyle Street.
“There is no doubt it continues to play a vital role, carrying around 155,000 vehicles a day.
“The work that’s been carried out to ensure it continues to do this job in the future has also won civil engineering awards, so applying to have the Kingston Bridge listed seems a fitting way to mark its impact over the past 50 years.”
The Glasgow Motorway Archive in collaboration with Transport Scotland is also releasing a number of previously unseen photos of the Kingston Bridge from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Stuart Baird, from the Glasgow Motorway Archive, said: “The Kingston Bridge was recognised as one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Scotland at the time and it’s had a huge impact in shaping the city over the last five decades.
“Listing the bridge doesn’t simply acknowledge its unique engineering and architectural features, it also recognises the work of the people that designed, built and maintained it over its first half-century of service.
“Kingston transformed its city. It vastly improved journey times, and eased horrendous congestion in Glasgow city centre.
“All the roads coming into Glasgow at the time converged in the city centre. You had a lot of traffic coming through and the safety record was poor, and it was difficult to cross
roads safely.”
He added: “In terms of what the bridge brought to the city, I’d say it deserves much more love.
“The refurbishment and the fact that it’s a concrete structure mean that it will last probably well into the next century.
“Whether it’ll still be taking cars every day remains to be seen, but the structure is definitely a fixture in the city for a long time to come yet.”
Transport Scotland has applied to Historic Environment Scotland to have the bridge listed as a structure of historic and architectural interest.
Elizabeth McCrone, head of designations at Historic Environment Scotland, said the bridge was not only a key part of Scotland’s motorway, but one of the busiest road bridges in Europe.
Mrs McRone added: “Scotland has a strong heritage of engineering achievements and the Kingston Bridge was designed by WA Fairhurst & Partners, one of the leading civil engineering firms of the period.
“We’d love to hear what the people of Scotland think about the proposal to recognise the Kingston Bridge as a listed structure.”
Following the Second World War, the city of Glasgow devised a masterplan for how its transport network should be taken forward.
City engineer Robert Bruce put together a wide-ranging report, which included ideas like the Clyde Tunnel and a Glasgow Inner Ring Road – a motorway circling the city centre. During the 1950s, there was little in the way of money to invest and no progress, but by the 1960s there was budget available to get the city moving more efficiently.
Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners made detailed plans for going forward, drawing from the highway systems of the US.
In 1961, Detroit was among the cities scouted by officials from the Glasgow Corporation and the Scotland Office to see how public transport and road systems were implemented on a large scale.
Construction work on the bridge began on May 15 1967.
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