Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 29th April, 2023)

I don't think you can get a wheelchair up them steps

It’s known as ‘Aireys Footbridge’, No.1 on the Leigh Branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The buildings behind you as you took the pic, Mick, used to be part of Airey’s Ltd. Victoria Brewery (now the premises of Bithells Waste Management Ltd).

More info: http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Airey%27s_Brewery_Ltd

Now this bridge takes me back to my youth, I used to come out of Eckersley's mill and my boyfriend at the time used to come out from the power station and we would meet up there  

I suppose it's better than swimming across.

And arthritis sufferers, PeterP good point.

I will tell you a tale about that bridge.

This was told to me a few years ago by a retired engineer, who was part of the team which built that bridge, and that is that the bridge was not built specifically as a pedestrian crossing over the canal, but as part of a structure to enable a gas supply to be provided to the old Westwood Power Station, which when constructed did not have a gas supply, and because at that point it is relatively short hop over the canal, and in order not to have to build a large supporting structure, over the canal, for such a small span, a method was used to enable the 12inch diameter metal gas main, to be used as a reinforcing structure for the concrete bridge, and the concrete bridge structure provides rigidity, keeping everything in place and providing protection for the pipe from passing boats etc

The pipe was constructed in such a way that the two ends of the pipe didn't line up, and during construction the pipe was twisted to line up with the other ends of the pipe, and then anchored into thick concrete slabs, thus placing the pipe under tension, this then makes the prestressed steel pipe able to support the structure of the concrete bridge decking, so that bridge does not support the metal pipe, the metal pipe supports the bridge.

I have been over that bridge loads of times because my dad worked at Westwood and I had never noticed the gas pipe?