Railway Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A skew single-span concrete bridge carries the Belfast-Larne railway over Glenville Road (including two footpaths, one of which is raised).

It is of painted reinforced-concrete throughout, all cast in situ. The arch is of three-centred profile, over which is a banded reveal of shallow segmental profile. The parapets have recessed rectangular panels and carry the date 1931 on the middle of their outside faces. The sloping wing walls on the west side have banded rustication and slightly advanced copings. The similarly detailed bank retaining walls on the east side merge with those of bridge HB21/10/001D. The deck has a slight downward fall from south to north in order to align the track with the burrowing junction under bridge HB21/10/001A which lies a short distance to the north. Restricted-headroom warning signs have been attached to the west face of the bridge (11'6" and 3.5m).

Historical information

When the Belfast-Ballymena railway was opened in 1848, the line ran via Greenisland in order to avoid the expense of constructing a massive viaduct over the valley of the Three Mile Water (here known as Valentine's Glen). This dogleg necessitated reversing trains between Greenisland and Antrim and added to the journey time.

In the early 1930s, the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) embarked on the construction of a viaduct across the glen in order to cut out the Greenisland detour and reduce the journey time by 20-25 minutes. The Greenisland Loop Scheme, as it was known, entailed the construction of this and four other bridges at the Whiteabbey end and four en route to Monkstown. The project cost £250,000 (approx £12m in today's values) and was directed by the NCC's Resident Engineer W.K. Wallace. It was also a job creation scheme, taking 550 men off social security.

Although this section of line was not opened until January 1934, this particular bridge was built in 1931. It carries the down line from Belfast to Larne and aligns it with a borrowing junction under bridge HB21/10/001A. It then crosses the glen on bridge HB21/10/001B. The up line from Larne to Belfast uses the original bridge over the glen (HB21/10/002).

In 1999, Translink repaired the bridge as part of the reopening of the Belfast-Antrim line which had closed to passengers in 1978. This entailed blast cleaning, repairs to the concrete, waterproofing and painting. The line reopened in June 2001.

References - Secondary sources:
1. Hamond, F.W. 'Railway Bridges, Bleach Green Junction, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim' (NIEA Listed Building record HB21/10/001, December 1994).
2. Translink. 'Antrim - Bleach Green: Rebirth of a Railway Line' (Belfast, 2001).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This railway bridge bears the distinctive utilitarian style of the LMS (NCC). Although of modest scale in itself, its importance is greatly enhanced by its association with the 1930s Greenisland Loop Scheme. This was the largest civil engineering project of its day and also brought much needed employment to the area during construction. This bridge is one of three in very close proximity to one another (the others are HB21/10/001D and HB21/10/001E), all of which are distinctive features of the Glenville Road. It also has a functional association and group value with the two viaducts at Bleach Green Junction, a short distance to the north (HB21/10/001A and HB21/10/001B). The viaductsand bridges are of particular interest as a group of original and unaltered concrete structures expressive of their time and function.