Sites and Monument Record: Avon Bridge, Grangemouth (SMR 268)
Description
5 arched bridge with narrow rounded cut-waters. Boring by BP showed that there is a larger amount of clay and rubble between the stonework and the present carriageway than is usual - due to the original design being for the canal.
Parapets raised 2003 by the Roads Dept.
Object detail
"I would proposes the Aquaeduct to be a very strong wooden tough, Twelve feet wide, and seven feet deep, supported upon rows of strong posts which should be set upon piles driven in the Bottom of the river. It should also be braced by diagonal Shores fastened to piles and to the bottom and top of the Trough... I would proposes the clear water way for the passage of the River or length of the openings of the Bridge, to be one hundred and twenty feet and the height to be eleven or twelve. From what observations I have been able to make, this will be abundantly sufficient for the passage of the waters, in any state which they ever are in.
I would have preferred this wooden fabrick, to one of stone, principally on account of the expence, which will be much less particularly, in such precarious foundations as the Kerse lands afford."
Built c1785 as an aqueduct for the Bo'ness Canal. When the Canal Company ran out of money, and construction of the canal was abandoned, the foundations were used for the present bridge. It was built on dry land and the river diverted under it.
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