Ouse Bridge (M62)

Ouse Bridge
Central spans over the Ouse
Coordinates	53°43′37″N 0°52′44″W / 53.727°N 0.879°W / 53.727; -0.879Coordinates: 53°43′37″N 0°52′44″W / 53.727°N 0.879°W / 53.727; -0.879
OS grid reference	NZ256639
Carries	Road Motor Vehicles (M62)
Crosses	River Ouse
Locale	Goole
Maintained by	Highways Agency
Preceded by	Boothferry bridge
Followed by	Goole railway swing bridge
Characteristics
Design	Plate girder bridge
Material	Reinforced concrete
Total length	1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi)
Height	30 metres (98 ft)
Longest span	89 metres (292 ft) (three main spans)
Number of spans	29
Piers in water	4
History
Designer	Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners
Constructed by	Costain
Fabrication by	Redpath Dorman Long
Construction begin	January 1973
Construction end	May 1976
Construction cost	£6.75 million
Inaugurated	24 May 1976
Ouse Bridge Location in East Riding of Yorkshire

The Ouse Bridge is a reinforced concrete plate girder bridge that spans River Ouse between Goole and Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It carries the M62 and is situated between junctions 36 and 37. It was built between 1973 and 1976 by Costain and was designed by Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners. The bridge was officially opened to traffic on 24 May 1976 by John Gilbert the Labour Minister of Transport.

Traffic to and from Hull to the A1 historically went over Boothferry Bridge, on the A614, which was a swing bridge.

The position of the bridge and the M62 resulted from a study carried out in 1964 by Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners. They would also design the bridge. It is a haunched girder bridge.

The extension of the M18 (from the current M180), the M62, and the first part of (what would become) the M180 (to Scunthorpe only) was announced in Hull in September 1965. At that time, it would be five years before the M62 would cross the Pennines, and the Humber Bridge would not be given firm funding until the Hull North by-election, 1966 in January 1966. The extension of the M180 would also require a similar bridge over the Trent which, like the Ouse Bridge, was the final part of that motorway section to open (in 1979, three years later). The Humber Bridge began construction (on the south-side embankment) in July 1972, and the Ouse Bridge followed only six months later; both were being built at the same time, and the Humber Bridge opened five years after the Ouse Bridge. Costain built the 2.5km southern approach road from the Humber Bridge to the A1077 at the same time as the Ouse Bridge, including a 320m viaduct with seven concrete box spans. Both sides of the Humber would be linked in February 1977. At the time of opening of the Ouse Bridge, the Humber Bridge was projected to cost £40 million, and to be completed by 1978. The M18 was projected, at the time, to open by mid-1978, but opened in February 1979.