The refurbishment of Putney Railway Bridge

Putney Railway Bridge is one of seven railway bridges crossing the River Thames in the Greater London Area and is one of only four providing a cross-London route. This paper covers the history of the bridge, the problems that developed in the bridge, the solutions developed to resolve those problems and the refurbishment works to the bridge. The bridge was built in 1888 and is an eight-span, half through, ‘four system’ lattice truss bridge carried on cast-iron caisson piers. It carries London Underground Limited's (LUL) District Line approximately seven metres above the Thames just south of Putney Bridge Station. Although intended to have excess capacity, war damage, corrosion, design errors and finally a major ship impact caused the line over the bridge to be closed temporarily. The repair and strengthening works incorporated the most up to date analysis techniques and a Quantified Risk Assessment. They addressed fundamental design omissions as well as deterioration and damage. The works were planned and executed to cause the minimum disruption to rail traffic and included the construction of mass sprung fenders, repair of a fractured caisson, replacement of the bearings, and extensive strengthening including the addition of cross girders.