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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 know as the Dearne Valley Line and Sheffield-Hull Line) and the Supertram on-route.

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 — 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, including two huge vases with flowers protruding from them (a plan labelled "dangerous" by the highways agency), as well as 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, would 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. An online petition has been set up demanding that the towers be kept . Many locals wish them to be demolished and see them as an eyesore. They believe that the continued discussion about keeping them there to be generated by a noisy minority.

References

1. Tinsley Viaduct, Sheffield by Sidney A. Leleux. A report on the building of the viaduct, from April 1966
2. £82 Million M1 Tinsley Viaduct strengthening work nears completion, from the Government News Network, highlighting the reasons behind keeping the road at four lanes
3. Turning Towers into Art, BBC South Yorkshire, 8th July 2006
4. Setback for ambitious art project, BBC South Yorkshire, 10th April 2006
5. 'Unique' towers facing demolition, BBC South Yorkshire, 31st October, 2006

External links

• Project website Prime Minister's Award
• Go sheffo: Cooling the Towers Cooling towers public art competition held in 2005.
• BBC News 'Turning towers into art' A news article on the Tinsley Viaduct cooling towers

53°25′03″N 1°24′22″W / 53.41763°N 1.406205°W / 53.41763; -1.406205

• Viaducts
• Bridges completed in 1968
• Bridges in South Yorkshire
• Buildings and structures in Sheffield
• Motorways in England
• Transport in Sheffield