| Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 12:22, 14th December 2025 |     |
Double checked another report to ensure the images weren't A.I. but unfortunately this is real. Looks to be that scour has felled one of the masonry piers supporting one of the smaller steel spans.
Mark
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/6915286/river-spey-viaduct-collapse/
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 12:28, 14th December 2025 | |
More on the viaduct from the Forgotten Relics web site.
Mark
http://www.forgottenrelics.org/bridges/spey-viaduct/
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 12:55, 14th December 2025 | |
Ah. The piers are not masonry, each pier for the approach spans is a pair of concrete-filled iron cylinders sunk to... bedrock(?) and clad in masonry, and for the supports in question, both have failed. The water is esturine and the mode of failure will prove to be informative for other similar structures. But, especially given their concrete cores, perhaps not corrosion - looking at old OS mapping, the deep water channel of the river has shifted and now bears on and surrounds the failed piers so it may be that they've simply been washed out of the ground.
Mark
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 12:57, 14th December 2025 | |
More photos here from Facebook.
Mark
https://www.facebook.com/groups/5847179865409002/permalink/24998004463233255/
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 13:23, 14th December 2025 | |
If you have Google Earth, you can use the menu 'View/Historical imagery' for the bridge site, allowing you to leaf through a striking set of aerial images from c.1985 to the present day, showing that from 2020 the river's main channel at the bridge switched to the west bank of the Spey for what appears to be the first time in the history of the structure. It may be that 2023's Storm Babet prompted some of this.
This might prove to be a reminder that some events that we like to think of occuring at rates that we'd think of as 'Geological' with respect to time spans can actually happen quickly - long periods of quiescence and then a short spell of rapid change.
Mark
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Trowres at 15:16, 14th December 2025 | |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1m87jlv97ro
A historic former railway bridge has been cordoned off by police after a section of it collapsed into the River Spey in Moray.
The Spey Viaduct, an iron girder structure near Garmouth, was built in 1886 and while no longer used for trains, was popular with cyclists and walkers.
Images on social media showed one of its supporting stone piers was leaning at an angle and part of the metalwork had twisted and fallen into the river.
The Spey Viaduct, an iron girder structure near Garmouth, was built in 1886 and while no longer used for trains, was popular with cyclists and walkers.
Images on social media showed one of its supporting stone piers was leaning at an angle and part of the metalwork had twisted and fallen into the river.
Photographs in the article.
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 17:39, 14th December 2025 | |
In 2024, a timely FOI request to Moray Council.
Mark
http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_155535.html
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by bobm at 18:28, 14th December 2025 | |
I have merged two topics on the subject into one purely in the interests of clarity and ease of future reference for our readers (or whatever phrase that bloke from Nailsea uses)
.| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by stuving at 18:58, 14th December 2025 | |
If you have Google Earth, you can use the menu 'View/Historical imagery' for the bridge site, allowing you to leaf through a striking set of aerial images from c.1985 to the present day, showing that from 2020 the river's main channel at the bridge switched to the west bank of the Spey for what appears to be the first time in the history of the structure. It may be that 2023's Storm Babet prompted some of this.
This might prove to be a reminder that some events that we like to think of occuring at rates that we'd think of as 'Geological' with respect to time spans can actually happen quickly - long periods of quiescence and then a short spell of rapid change.
Mark
This might prove to be a reminder that some events that we like to think of occuring at rates that we'd think of as 'Geological' with respect to time spans can actually happen quickly - long periods of quiescence and then a short spell of rapid change.
Mark
I think the pattern of channels has been a lot more variable than that. As the linked "Forgotten Relics" article says, it was intended to protect the bridge foundations by confining the flow to the main span. But the river had other ideas, and immediately started switching its path when the river was in spate (pretty common).
The Duke of Richmond and Gordon went to court to get the GNoSR to do more to block the side arches, a case that was settled without a ruling, so it's not clear what the result was. Equally unclear is why the big local landowner wanted to favour commercial fishing by blocking the river's flood channels, and so cause the river upstream to burst its banks!
In practice the argument seems to have been about how big a flood should be kept in the main channel, before being allowed to spread wider, and who was to rebuild the cills under the side arches after the flood had broken through them. Certainly it looks as if at some stage, probably long before the railway closed, people gave up trying to bully the river. So it's been shifting the stuff that held the piers upright ever since.
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 19:25, 14th December 2025 | |
I have merged two topics on the subject into one purely in the interests of clarity and ease of future reference for our readers (or whatever phrase that bloke from Nailsea uses) 
.
.Erm ... excuse me ?!?
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Oxonhutch at 20:32, 14th December 2025 | |
Hopefully a new very light weight section - bridging the fallen piers - can restore the path and cycleway.
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 22:05, 14th December 2025 | |
Yes, the ~65 metre steel span needed is very achievable and hopefully the piers either side of the failed ones are sound. It might need to be scoped to enable a certain amount of access by vehicles in the interests of future maintenance of the rest of the structure.
Access to the site is an issue though as that would need a temporary road built to the site.
Initially it might seem to be an extravagance to repair this, but the other options are also expensive and offer no benefits other than to reduce/remove the liability.
To remove just the damaged spans and piers - that's expensive in itself and still needs the temporary access road - and leaves the rest of the structure to become a liability in its own time.
So, option 3 - removing the entire structure - means, among oher things, dealing with that centre span, at 368 feet it's over 40 feet longer than each of the Severn Rail bridge's two large spans - it even manages to be 8 feet longer than the two warren truss spans - between the three cantilevers of the Forth Rail Bridge. For good measure it's awkwardly placed in the middle of a wild and shallow river with no road or rail access.
The only positive for that operation must be that there's nothing nearby to damage while the span is dropped into the river by explosives, cut up by... whatever's used to cut up scrap steelwork in a river bed - and then removed from site. But... while that was ok for the Severn Bridge's big spans in the sixties, given the likely surface coatings on the Spey viaduct, environmental legislation would rule that out completely. So, would it be a matter of encasing the span, propping it, chopping it piece by piece and taking it back to dry ground over the remaining structure? That's an approach which has introduced the need for more expense in the form of a second temporary access road at the east end of the bridge....
Mark
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by Mark A at 20:39, 15th December 2025 | |
Moray Council have issued a statement.
Mark
https://newsroom.moray.gov.uk/news/garmouthspey-viaduct-update-15-december-2025
| Re: Disused rail viaduct over the Spey at Garmouth fails Posted by ChrisB at 17:36, 17th December 2025 | |
Fund repairs for the Spey Viaduct - Change.org petition
From the BBC
Replacing collapsed bridge 'nigh on impossible' cost for council
Replacing a historic former railway bridge across the River Spey would be "nigh on impossible" due to the cost, a councillor has said
The 350ft (107m) Spey Viaduct - an iron girder structure near Garmouth - partially collapsed at the weekend.
Moray Council said initial inspections suggested scour - fast-moving water eroding foundations - appeared to be the cause.
Councillor Marc Macrae said the cost of a replacement for the 1886 bridge would be beyond the council's means.
Moray Council said that at the time of the last inspection report by a specialist contractor, in 2023, there was no evidence of scour.
The Speyside Way - a long-distance trail which traces the River Spey from the Moray Firth to the Cairngorms National Park - passes one end of the bridge.
It is also part of the National Cycle Network.
Councillor Macrae represents the local Fochabers and Lhanbryde ward and is also chairman of Moray Council's economic development and infrastructure services committee.
He told BBC Scotland News he had felt a "state of shock" at what had happened, as the structure had been part of daily life for so long.
After the railway line closed in the 1960s the bridge remained popular with walkers, cyclists and tourists.
"I think the important thing at the minute is to assess the damage that has been done, we need a plan for how we remove the two deck sections that are now in the river," he said.
"And then look to investigate the rest of the structure of the bridge.
"I wouldn't even like to guesstimate a figure to repair the bridge, let alone replace the bridge if necessary."
He said it would be challenging to find the funding to replace the bridge, when competing with other services for money.
"In the current financial climate, it's going to be nigh on impossible," he said.
"I would hope national government if anything would step in here because it's a project way beyond the means of the local authority and the constrained budgets we have at this time."
Mr Macrae said the bridge had been relied on for well over a century, so it was important to find some kind of solution.
"It might not be the iconic bridge because of the cost. But I think the fact these two communities have been linked together for such a long period of time, people will look to see a solution put in place," he said.
"I am very sad that this has happened."
Roddy Robertson, the chairman of Garmouth and Kingston Community Association, said concerns had been raised for more than a decade.
"One of our fears was it would get to this position that we are in today, that the bridge would become unsafe, it would be too expensive to fix, and we would lose that bridge," he said.
"So it's extremely frustrating to see the bridge lost when it possibly could have been saved. Who knows, we won't know that, that's hindsight now I suppose.
"The community is absolutely devastated, yesterday (Sunday) was a bit of grief almost if you like, I know it's a structure, today is now asking questions about why did it happen and where do we go from here."
He said although it was not a road bridge, it brought people to the local communities.
"It's now a nine-mile trek round to get to the same place," he said.
"It's an ideal place to walk.
"Part of me always thinks every cloud has a silver lining, we will see what we can build from this, whether it's a replacement, hopefully something good will come from this."Moray Council has maintained the bridge since 1968 when the railway line was closed.
The local authority said in a statement on Monday evening: "Engineers have now assessed the Garmouth Viaduct and on initial inspection can confirm the collapse appears to be due to scour.
"It appears that over the last year the river flow path has changed, which may have contributed to a change of impact on the piers.
"We're in the process of instructing a specialist engineer to undertake a more detailed inspection and assessment and hope that this can be progressed before Christmas or early in the new year."
Options will be presented to councillors "as soon as practicably possible".
The statement added: "We're well aware of the strength of feeling in the local community, and further afield, for this bridge and how well used it is by walkers and cyclists."
The bridge will remain closed until further notice.
Replacing a historic former railway bridge across the River Spey would be "nigh on impossible" due to the cost, a councillor has said
The 350ft (107m) Spey Viaduct - an iron girder structure near Garmouth - partially collapsed at the weekend.
Moray Council said initial inspections suggested scour - fast-moving water eroding foundations - appeared to be the cause.
Councillor Marc Macrae said the cost of a replacement for the 1886 bridge would be beyond the council's means.
Moray Council said that at the time of the last inspection report by a specialist contractor, in 2023, there was no evidence of scour.
The Speyside Way - a long-distance trail which traces the River Spey from the Moray Firth to the Cairngorms National Park - passes one end of the bridge.
It is also part of the National Cycle Network.
Councillor Macrae represents the local Fochabers and Lhanbryde ward and is also chairman of Moray Council's economic development and infrastructure services committee.
He told BBC Scotland News he had felt a "state of shock" at what had happened, as the structure had been part of daily life for so long.
After the railway line closed in the 1960s the bridge remained popular with walkers, cyclists and tourists.
"I think the important thing at the minute is to assess the damage that has been done, we need a plan for how we remove the two deck sections that are now in the river," he said.
"And then look to investigate the rest of the structure of the bridge.
"I wouldn't even like to guesstimate a figure to repair the bridge, let alone replace the bridge if necessary."
He said it would be challenging to find the funding to replace the bridge, when competing with other services for money.
"In the current financial climate, it's going to be nigh on impossible," he said.
"I would hope national government if anything would step in here because it's a project way beyond the means of the local authority and the constrained budgets we have at this time."
Mr Macrae said the bridge had been relied on for well over a century, so it was important to find some kind of solution.
"It might not be the iconic bridge because of the cost. But I think the fact these two communities have been linked together for such a long period of time, people will look to see a solution put in place," he said.
"I am very sad that this has happened."
Roddy Robertson, the chairman of Garmouth and Kingston Community Association, said concerns had been raised for more than a decade.
"One of our fears was it would get to this position that we are in today, that the bridge would become unsafe, it would be too expensive to fix, and we would lose that bridge," he said.
"So it's extremely frustrating to see the bridge lost when it possibly could have been saved. Who knows, we won't know that, that's hindsight now I suppose.
"The community is absolutely devastated, yesterday (Sunday) was a bit of grief almost if you like, I know it's a structure, today is now asking questions about why did it happen and where do we go from here."
He said although it was not a road bridge, it brought people to the local communities.
"It's now a nine-mile trek round to get to the same place," he said.
"It's an ideal place to walk.
"Part of me always thinks every cloud has a silver lining, we will see what we can build from this, whether it's a replacement, hopefully something good will come from this."Moray Council has maintained the bridge since 1968 when the railway line was closed.
The local authority said in a statement on Monday evening: "Engineers have now assessed the Garmouth Viaduct and on initial inspection can confirm the collapse appears to be due to scour.
"It appears that over the last year the river flow path has changed, which may have contributed to a change of impact on the piers.
"We're in the process of instructing a specialist engineer to undertake a more detailed inspection and assessment and hope that this can be progressed before Christmas or early in the new year."
Options will be presented to councillors "as soon as practicably possible".
The statement added: "We're well aware of the strength of feeling in the local community, and further afield, for this bridge and how well used it is by walkers and cyclists."
The bridge will remain closed until further notice.
