Humber Bridge safety tour

The Humber Bridge opened to the first traffic in June 1981 after 8 years of construction at a cost of £98 million. At that time, it was the longest single suspension bridge in the world. That record now belongs to the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan and was opened in 1998.

On the 15th March 2019 I had the privilege of been invited to the IOSH health & safety site tour of the North Tower of the Humber Bridge. During the visit we headed down the 8 metre ladder into the anchorage chamber. It was amazing to learn that the main cable we all see on the deck, is actually made up of approximately 15000 individual wires. Each wire is strong enough to hold the weight of an articulated lorry.

Another interesting piece of information is that the road deck is constructed like an upside down aeroplane wing. With the Humber Estuary often experiencing high winds, this shape pushes the road deck downwards in high winds to keep the bridge stable.

Humber Bridge facts

• There is enough cable used in the bridge to go around the earth nearly twice.
• 480000 tonnes of concrete was used in the construction.
• The towers are 36mm further away from the top of each tower than the bottom to allow for the curvature of the earth.
• The total weight of the deck structure is 16500 tonnes.