THE 50th anniversary of the Kingston Bridge is being celebrated with a bid to have it listed as a structure of historic and architectural interest.
The famous Glasgow landmark was opened on 26 June 1970 by the Queen Mother following three years of construction at a cost of £11m, the equivalent of £180m today.
The Kingston Bridge is 270m long, over 40m wide and crosses the River Clyde at a maximum height of almost 20m.
Cabinet Secretary for Transport Michael Matheson said: ‘The Kingston Bridge has become an iconic feature of the Glasgow landscape. Carrying around 155,000 vehicles a day 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.
‘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.’
Elizabeth McCrone, head of designations at Historic Environment Scotland said: ‘The Kingston Bridge is a key part of Scotland’s first motorway and is one of the busiest road bridges in Europe. Scotland has a strong heritage of engineering achievements.’
The Kingston Bridge was designed by WA Fairhurst & Partners, one of the leading civil engineering firms of the period.
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