It's one of our old bridges now but it was christened 'new' because this road bridge replaced a previous rail bridge, the wooden stumps of which can still be seen poking up from the river bed at low tide when you hang over (carefully, please!) the up-river side.
The plate girder bridge, which opened in 1903 following the expansion of Port Talbot docks in 1890, is listed with Cadw: ...a finely detailed plate-girder bridge which is unusual at this date for carrying a strategic road rather than a railway. The association with the development of Port Talbot docks is of additional historic interest. (Record 23153). The bases of the original gas lamp-posts are still mounted on its large, square stone piers. It is now closed to traffic and is a link in NPTCBC’s riverside foot and cycle path network.
Its listing as a heritage site should mean that the bridge is protected but its future is far from secure. The absence of any maintenance over decades means that a considerable amount of money would have to be spent on it and in 2013 the local authority confirmed their long term plan to replace the bridge with a new footbridge subject to funding and Cadw's approval.
A year later no further progress has been made and I'm currently waiting to hear back from the Heritage Officer at NPTCBC.
I'd like to believe that Port Talbot can hold on to Newbridge, one of the few physical traces that remains of our industrial past. But that hope may have to be supported by the community's protective voice.
The plate girder bridge, which opened in 1903 following the expansion of Port Talbot docks in 1890, is listed with Cadw: ...a finely detailed plate-girder bridge which is unusual at this date for carrying a strategic road rather than a railway. The association with the development of Port Talbot docks is of additional historic interest. (Record 23153). The bases of the original gas lamp-posts are still mounted on its large, square stone piers. It is now closed to traffic and is a link in NPTCBC’s riverside foot and cycle path network.
Its listing as a heritage site should mean that the bridge is protected but its future is far from secure. The absence of any maintenance over decades means that a considerable amount of money would have to be spent on it and in 2013 the local authority confirmed their long term plan to replace the bridge with a new footbridge subject to funding and Cadw's approval.
A year later no further progress has been made and I'm currently waiting to hear back from the Heritage Officer at NPTCBC.
I'd like to believe that Port Talbot can hold on to Newbridge, one of the few physical traces that remains of our industrial past. But that hope may have to be supported by the community's protective voice.
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