History/Engineering
The Tay Road Bridge is 2250m in length and spans the estuary of the river Tay between Dundee and Newport-on-Tay. The bridge was designed by William A Fairhurst and took three years to build between 1963 and 1966 at a cost of £4.8m. The main contractor was Duncan Logan (Contractors) Ltd of Muir of Ord.
The main structure comprises 42 spans the majority of which are 55m in length increasing to 76.3m at the four navigation channels and reducing to 24.4m at the Dundee end.
The roadway comprises dual carriageways 6.7m wide with a 3m wide central walkway/cycleway and rises at a gradient of 1 in 81 from a height of 9.7m above sea level at the Dundee end to 38m at the Fife end to provide clearance at the navigation channels.
Concrete piers in the river support twin concrete columns of parabolic shape that vary in height from 5.5m at the Dundee end to 30.5m at the Fife end. The twin columns support twin hollow steel box girders 3.65m wide and 3m deep, which in turn support a 300mm thick composite concrete slab carrying the roadway.
At the Dundee end of the main structure traffic was collected and discharged via four elevated curved and spiral reinforced concrete ramps supported on concrete columns with a total elevated length of approx 500m.
Abolition of Tolls
Bridge tolls were abolished with effect from 11 February 2008.
Old Toll Information
Below you will find a link to an archived copy of the toll information that used to be in place on the old Tay Bridge website. It includes images of the toll plaza as it used to be.
