ICE Wales Cymru, working with ICE's Panel for Historic Engineering Works, has unveiled a commemorative plaque at the site of the Tawe River Bridges, Swansea as part of its historic plaque programme.
Ian Davies, Chairman ICE Wales Cymru, said: "I am delighted to present this plaque to the City and County of Swansea to commemorate the fine examples of civil engineering that have taken place to cross the River Tawe.
"ICE Wales Cymru has been celebrating civil engineering and civil engineers for the last 10 years by placing plaques and information panels at locations across Wales and we are delighted that the work to the bridges provides the opportunity to celebrate the skills of the engineers involved in all of the schemes that have taken place here since 1863."
The latest improvements to the bridges are part of the Council's Boulevard regeneration scheme with major changes to roads and pedestrianised areas. Cllr John Hague, Cabinet Member for the Environment in Swansea Council, said: "The river bridges across the Tawe are a major gateway into the city centre. Increases in traffic volumes and congestion predicted over the next few years meant we needed to look at new ways of moving traffic over the bridges. The work recently completed on the bridges has had very positive results in terms of traffic flows. I'm delighted that ICE has recognised the importance of these bridges and they are continuing to commemorate the significance of the structures."
The project was supported by Swansea Council, the Welsh Government and the ERDF Convergence programme.
The plaque reads:
In 1852 the river Tawe was diverted through a ‘new cut’ to allow the old river bed to be used as the first floating dock in Swansea, the North Dock.
Many roads and railways crossed the new cut. On 14 July 1863 the Swansea & Neath Railway opened to allow the Vale of Neath Railway to access Swansea South Dock. This railway crossed an opening bridge across the New Cut. This, and another across the North Dock entrance, was supplied by Armstrongs of Newcastle upon Tyne. The river runs through the New Cut and the masonry piers of this bridge can still be seen today.
The current New Cut Bridge (engineer R D Moody) opened in 1965. It replaced a combined road and rail swing bridge built by the Swansea Harbour Trust (engineer A O Schenk) that used hydraulic machinery, also supplied by Armstrongs. The second road bridge (engineer W J Ward), called the Tawe Bridge, was opened on 13 November 1986. The two road bridges were refurbished and the road layout remodelled in 2011 by the City and County of Swansea, contractor Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd.