Son River Bridge near Arrah
Son River Bridge near Arrah
Note: "Son River" is used in the Imperial Gazetteer of India which we take as the definitive spelling, also used in Wikipedia [1]. Other variants are "Soane River" used in Huddlestone [2]; "Sone River" is used in several other documents [3] [4] [5] and on modern maps.
The Son River at Koilwar near Arrah, was a major obstacle on the mainline route of the East Indian Railway (EIR) line and was the first major bridge on the route [3]. The bridge once opened became known as the Koilwar Bridge[4]. and carries a two-lane road under the twin rail tracks.
The monsoon-ravaged Ganges tributaries such as the wide Son River were particularly challenging to bridge; a major constraint for the EIR Chief Engineer George Turnbull was the lack of both quality clay and brick-building skills. Consequently a steel lattice-girder design was adopted which required importing ironwork from England [5]. The bridge steelwork was designed by James Meadows Rendel and Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt in London [4].
An initial survey of the bridge site was made on 17 February 1851 by George Turnbull, Chief Engineer of the East Indian Railway Company: he determined that the river then was 5,350 feet (1,630 m) feet across — the completed bridge was 5,280 feet (1,610 m) feet across [4].
Construction started in 1856, disrupted by uprisings in 1857, and completed in 1862. Samuel Power was General Assistant to the EIR Chief Engineer George Turnbull on the construction of the Son River Bridge [6].
The bridge became known as the Koilwar Bridge and renamed the Abdul Bari Bridge shortly after independence in 1947 [4]
References
- ↑ Wikipedia "Son River"; Retrieved 12 Jun 2016
- ↑ Archive.org "History of the East Indian Railway ..." by George Huddlestone pages 19 and 35, pdf pages 40 and 58; Retrieved 12 Jun 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Symphony of Progress - The Saga of the Eastern Railway 1854-2003”; published by Eastern Railway, 2003; pages 11 and 14
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Wikipedia "Koilwar Bridge" Retrieved 12 Jun 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Grace's Guide "George Turnbull"; Retrieved 12 Jun 2016 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "GGturnb" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Institution of Civil Engineers Proceedings Volume 33 Issue 1872, 1872, pp. 240-241 ; Retrieved 12 Jun 2016