Three recent visits to Hull reminded Peter of just what a fine structure the Humber Bridge is, and how user-friendly the toll arrangements are.
In the past month, I’ve visited Hull three times. From home, this is a run of nearly 100 miles across pretty-much the whole length of Lincolnshire; my base is a few miles north of the Cambridgeshire border. The county changes significantly over that distance. The start is flat Fenland prairie farmland, then there’s the extremely pleasant undulating Wolds; contrary to popular belief by no means all of Lincolnshire is flat. Finally, there’s the magnificent Humber Bridge which since 1981 has linked the North Lincolnshire coast with Hull and East Yorkshire.
What a huge and magnificent structure! With a central span over three-quarters of a mile long, the Humber Bridge was, when built, the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. The piers are 510ft high, and though built vertically, the tops are 1.4ins further apart than the bottom, due to the curvature of the earth. Oh, and there’s also vital suspension cables which weigh 5000 tonnes apiece and which, if ‘unspun’ down to the individual strands, would be 44,000 miles long.
So, it’s a massive structure. On paper, there are longer and higher road bridges in Britain, but that’s a bit misleading, as bigger bridges are multi-pier affairs with the actual suspension section as only a relatively small part. The Humber Bridge, however, is a simple affair comprising two massive piers with a roadway running between them and two others leading two them from each side.
But there is something else I like about the Humber Bridge, which I suspect readers of this publication will also be impressed by. In the 42 years it’s been open, the Humber bridge has been largely trouble-free. Yes, it has to close sometimes due to high winds, but given its location that’s inevitable. It hasn’t, though, needed anything like the level of post-construction repair that, for example the original Severn Bridge or the first Forth Road Bridge have. When built, it was claimed that the Humber Bridge had been designed and built to last 120 years; it’ll easily do that!
You pay a toll to cross it of course, but it’s just £1.50. And in stark contrast to the Dartford Crossing which, by sly slip of hand, had its toll converted into a congestion charge once the costs of construction were covered, the fee to cross the Humber reflects only what it actually costs. For six months from Autumn 2011 to Spring 2012 the charge was doubled to £3, but when the government agreed to reduce the bridge’s debt by 150million, the toll was cut to £1.50.
The payment method is miles better than Dartford’s, too. You can no longer pay cash, but single journey credit/debit card payments are fine, and there is a
