Gree Viaduct
Gree Viaduct
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Gree enjoyed its last summer in 2007.
After gracing the landscape for 105 years, the Lanarkshire & Ayrshire Railway’s crumbling viaduct over Lugton Water succumbed to the inevitable during the winter of 2008. It was a product of ‘Concrete Bob’ McAlpine and amongst the earliest to be built of this new material. Unfortunately, engineers of the time did not fully appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of concrete. Gree lacked the steel reinforcements which are taken for granted today.
Following the line’s closure in 1950, the viaduct’s condition declined and it became unsafe. Demolition contractors moved onto site in January 2008. Three months later, the structure was gone. Nearby Giffenmill Viaduct met a similar fate in 2006.
July 2008