User:VinceBowdren/TV06

Tinsley Viaduct is a two-tier road bridge in Sheffield, England; the first of its kind in the country. It carries the M1 and the A631 some 1033 metres over the Don Valley, from Tinsley to Wincobank, crossing the Sheffield Canal, Sheffield and Rotherham Railway (now known as the Dearne Valley Line and Sheffield-Hull Line) on-route, and with the Supertram route also passing underneath.



The viaduct was opened in March 1968 and cost £6 million to build. The bridge has since been strengthened, in 1983 and again recently, with work finished in spring 2006. Although originally designed to carry 6 lanes, during the strengthening work the M1 was reduced to 4 lanes following an EU directive on load bearing. This arrangement has now been made permanent to allow the third lane in each direction to join from J34 to make the very busy junction safer.

The viaduct is balanced on rollers to allow for thermal expansion and contraction, and the route weaves slightly in order to make its way past other buildings. As things currently stand, the Meadowhall Shopping Centre lies in the valley to the west, while to the east is the Blackburn Meadows sewage works.

The viaduct is one of Sheffield's most prominent landmarks, made all the more so by the adjacent pair of cooling towers that were left standing for safety reasons after the demolition of the Blackburn Meadows power station. Both the viaduct and the cooling towers continue to be the subject of local controversy &mdash; many criticise the viaduct as unsafe and constantly under repair, and others consider the cooling towers an eye-sore that should be pulled down. The cooling towers in particular have been a major point of contention over the years, and were once only saved from destruction after being chosen as a nesting site by a rare bird. More recently, plans have been made to turn them into a piece of public art. Other plans include more practical uses such as concert halls, skate parks and a theme park. Their iconic status, and the possibly prohibitive costs of demolishing the towers safely, until recently looked to have cemented their status in Sheffield's future as much as they were a part of its history, until the owner of the tower (and the now-demolished power station) E.On, have stated their intention to demolish them now that the strengthening of the viaduct makes it more feasible.