324:, a major employer in the little town. The owner of the family business, Frans Boel, was elected mayor of Temse in 1933, and he arrived in office with big plans for the bridge. The bridge already had an opening to facilitate navigability upriver, and Boel's proposals included increasing this so that the shipyard could make larger ships without having to take account of size restrictions imposed by the bridge. The 1930s also saw a surge in car ownership, and there were plans to extend the bridge in ways that would permit cars to use it. A little later, there was also a plan for a completely new bridge a short distance upriver (and upriver of the shipyard). The outbreak of war and the
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306:. However, beside the railway line, on each side of it, was a toll path for pedestrians and their animals. Tolls were set in 1872 at 15 centimes for a horse or cow, 10 centimes for a donkey, 5 centimes for a person and 3 centimes for one goat or two ducks. Later in the century, the bridge was also used by small horse carts and dog carts. Towards the end of the century motor cars began to appear on the streets, but anyone wishing to cross the river with a car had to drive upstream to
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also involve another prolonged closure of the bridge which brought back memories of the two years of horrendous delays and diversions during the bridge closure of 1992–94. Following the deliberations and planning, a symbolic "first stone" was put in place in
October 2006 and work on a new parallel bridge started in earnest in April 2007.
317:, when retreating Belgian troops rendered it unusable in October 1914, but it was restored by the Germans. However, in 1918 it was retreating German troops who rendered the bridge unusable. It was patched together in 1919, but was only restored sufficiently to permit a return to large-scale railway use in March 1924.
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Options considered and rejected included another
Scheldt Tunnel, to be dug at Temse, but this was deemed technically unfeasible. Consideration was also given to fitting an extra lane to the existing bridge, but it was felt that this would not provide sufficient additional road capacity, and it would
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Unlike the "Old bridge", the 2009 Schelde Bridge carries no rail-track. It does carry two additional road lanes, providing two lanes for southbound traffic, and enabling both vehicle lanes on the 1955 bridge to be used for northbound traffic. There is also a cycle path and a broad pedestrian path
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section at the deepest point in the river to accommodate ships up to 30 m (98.4 ft) meters wide. For the 1960s the decision was taken to increase the maximum ship width to 50 m (164.0 ft). This meant installing a lifted-deck section 20 m (65.6 ft) longer than before,
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Work on what is today (2015) known locally as the "old bridge" began on 2 June 1949. Cars were now a priority, and what was now a 365 m (1,197.5 ft) road bridge, featuring space for a single-track rail-line, a regional road and pedestrian/cycle paths opened on 19 December 1955, in a
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In addition to the construction of a new bridge and short link roads for it, the 2009 project also included the addition of "impact safeguards" downstream of the old bridge, positioned to protect the two piers supporting the
376:. However, at this stage no steps were taken to increase the capacity of the bridge which reopened with one road lane in each direction (along with the single rail track and the cycle/pedestrian paths) on 29 April 1994.
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with a surface of heavy duty timber planking. The cost of what is now
Belgium's longest bridge crossing over water was €23.5 Million. This compared with an estimate of €16.0 Million published in 2005.
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The 1950s was a decade of explosive growth for the shipyard, its focus on ever larger bulk carriers. The bridge design produced in the late 1940s had not anticipated this. It had incorporated a central
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section needed replacing. This time the bridge was closed to traffic for two years, starting in 1992, with drivers required to divert via the already frequently clogged up routes via
Antwerp or
352:. There was nevertheless a human cost: many construction workers fell into the water while this bridge was being built and in 1952 one of them, Karel Pepermans, lost his life in this way.
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The "New" (2009) Temse bridge viewed from the west in 2012. The "lattice-work" of the steel frame of the "Old" (1955) Temse bridge can be discerned on the far side of it.
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A few decades later it was then explained that the growth in volume and weight of traffic had exceeded official expectations, and the heavy moving parts of the
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but the need for structural modifications was limited because it was now possible to do this without increasing the weight of the lifted section. The
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Temse marks the last bridge crossing over the
Scheldt before the river reaches the sea. Road crossings downstream of this point use tunnels.
198:. The old bridge lost that distinction to the New Schelde Bridge which runs parallel to it, and has a length of 374 m (1,227.0 ft).
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runs along the middle of the river. This means that more than 50% of the bridge's total length falls within the municipality of
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The first bridge across the
Schelde at Temse was ready for use on 30 November 1870. It was designed by the French engineer
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On 18 May 1940 the Temse bridge was blown up by French and
Belgian troops for tactical reasons. Between 1940 and 1955
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turned a deaf ear to increasingly shrill demands for a solution. In the end the regional
Minister of Public Works,
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After 1994 traffic volumes continued to increase, and the bridge's notoriety for congestion and delays grew, but the
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itself undertook the work, and the important upgrade was achieved during 1963 in record time.
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The bridge between 1870 and 1940 was a rail bridge, with parallel toll paths on each side.
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Before there was any bridge, at least as far back as the fourteenth century, there was a
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section (and behind them the equivalent piers of the new bridge) on the seaward side.
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The two decades between the wars marked a period of economic growth, notably for the
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A parallel Temse bridge was opened in 2009 to ease traffic congestion at busy times.
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748:Buildings and structures in East Flanders
130:365 m (1,197.5 ft) (since 1955)
128:343 m (1,125.3 ft) (1870-1940)
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533:. De Standaard, Antwerpen. 4 May 2005
286:Rail bridge with toll paths 1870-1940
213:on the north shore of the river with
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313:The bridge was badly damaged in the
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134:(parallel road bridge since 2009)
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531:"Tweede Temsebrug klaar in 2009"
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465:"Temse: Second Scheldt bridge"
344:ceremony presided over by the
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435:. Scheldegids. Archived from
132:374 m (1,227.0 ft)
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758:Bascule bridges in Belgium
326:German invasion of Belgium
237:from that administered by
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507:tderyck (18 March 2008).
395:"New bridge" 2009 to date
339:"Old bridge" 1955 to date
266:crossing point at Temse.
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87:(road bridge since 1955)
243:the Province of Antwerp
509:"138 jaar Scheldebrug"
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578:Belgian municipality
511:. Gazet van Antwerpen
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641:Buildings and sights
163:(blown up by troops)
64:51.12167°N 4.21972°E
753:Bridges in Flanders
467:. HYE, Zwijndrecht
442:on January 16, 2005
430:"Temse - Temsebrug"
428:Raf Stuyck (1987).
381:regional government
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120:Steel and concrete
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153:(road bridge)
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535:. Retrieved
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469:. Retrieved
444:. Retrieved
437:the original
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389:Kris Peeters
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223:Sint-Niklaas
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182:crosses the
180:Temse Bridge
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125:Total length
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23:Temse Bridge
628: [
611: [
374:Dendermonde
308:Dendermonde
67: /
42:Coordinates
727:Categories
658:Dodentocht
608:Mariekerke
416:References
410:drawbridge
370:drawbridge
358:drawbridge
346:young King
537:7 October
515:6 October
471:6 October
446:6 October
304:Terneuzen
205:Geography
158:Collapsed
106:Temsebrug
55:4°13′11″E
52:51°7′18″N
687:Category
385:Brussels
348:and the
300:Mechelen
227:Mechelen
168:Location
117:Material
699:Commons
603:Hingene
253:History
196:Belgium
192:Antwerp
184:Scheldt
139:History
96:Scheldt
92:Crossed
80:Carried
733:Bornem
625:Wintam
598:Bornem
580:Bornem
247:Bornem
239:Bornem
215:Bornem
16:Bridge
738:Temse
632:]
620:Weert
615:]
440:(PDF)
433:(PDF)
333:river
298:from
264:ferry
258:Ferry
231:Temse
211:Temse
188:Temse
151:1955
147:1870
539:2015
517:2015
473:2015
448:2015
296:line
178:The
383:in
302:to
241:in
233:in
225:to
219:N16
186:at
84:N16
729::
630:nl
613:nl
481:^
456:^
310:.
249:.
571:e
564:t
557:v
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
