Clyde Waterfront and Renfrew Riverside Project

ROD is collaborating with design lead H&H to provide comprehensive movable bridge engineering design services for the first opening road bridge over the River Clyde in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The 184m, double cable-stayed, swing bridge will carry vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians across the Clyde while providing a significant opening for marine traffic.

The Clyde crossing is the centerpiece of the Clyde Waterfront and Renfrew Riverside (CWRR) project, which will transform the waterfront, connect communities on both sides of the river, improve access to jobs, education, hospitals, and leisure pursuits, and create new connections into Scotland's manufacturing innovation district, AMIDS.

The design-build project is being led by construction and civil engineering company, GRAHAM, with Hollandia Infra, lemants, Ramboll, Amey, Hycom Engineering, and Fairfield Control Systems among the other members of the project team. 

Hollandia–Iemants are responsible for the design, fabrication, erection and commissioning of both cable-stayed, swing superstructures. 

The H&H-ROD team uses an integrated design approach, with structural, mechanical, and electrical systems functioning as one and bridge geometry and systems matched to optimise functionality and long-term durability and reliability.

The project will create an attractive waterfront area and provide communities in Renfrew, Clydebank, Yoker and the wider city region with better connections to their places of work and to local hospitals, education centres and leisure opportunities.

A new 750m long road will connect the bridge to the manufacturing innovation district, AMIDS, linking Meadowside Street to Argyll Avenue in Renfrew. The new road will reduce congestion in Renfrew town centre, shorten journey times and improve journey reliability.

New pedestrian and cycling routes through Renfrew and across the bridge will connect to Yoker train station and the national cycling network.

The geometry of this elegant and structurally efficient swing bridge allows for cyclist and pedestrian-friendly gradients on the bridge while providing a significant navigational opening. The 12.3m wide bridge deck contains two carriageways and two pedestrian footpaths.

The double swing bridge is 130m pivot to pivot, with an asymmetric or “bobtail” arrangement of 65m forward span and 27m back span. The steel superstructures spans are gear-driven, hydraulically powered, and open at a 110° angle. The forward steel superstructure is supported by cable-stays anchored to steel pylons and a counterweighted back span.

The design of movable structures is always a challenge in itself, particularly when looking at a joint between two movable parts. The design was optimised to ensure a light superstructure with the innate flexibility of a cable-stay bridge. The processes of geometry control were thoroughly developed, including allowances for possible cable adjustments on site to ensure continuity between the two spans.

The two spans were built by two different steel fabricators. While they may seem symmetric, there are differences in weights and construction sequence which made close coordination between all parties crucial.

Wind studies of the deck and pylon were performed. Wind tunnel tests were complemented by CFD analysis, which led to the installation of deck fascia plates with a variable section along the bridge.

Bridge engineering design