Ooh shiny! Another bridge opening this week, Pooley Bridge in Cumbria, replacing an 18th-century stone arch bridge that was washed away by Storm Desmond in 2015. The new bridge features an interesting construction detail (image: newsandstar.co.uk/news/18818020.…) 1/ 
The bridge is the first highways bridge in the UK to use structural stainless steel! To avoid the new bridge being washed away again, no piers in the river were permitted, so the bridge needed to span 40m - and also needed to be built over winter to avoid the tourist season 2/
To be built over winter required an efficient design to permit speedy construction. Ordinary structural steel would be too heavy to lift the bridge in one span, it would have to be split into two halves requiring a temporary pier (and piers were banned by the Environment Agency)
Stainless steel is approx 2.5 times more expensive than normal structural steel, but it is lighter, so a crane of reasonable size could lift the bridge in one go. Of course, it is also more durable. The finished structure is composite, using steel and a concrete slab deck 4/
The finished design is very sleek and nice to look at, something we need more of in bridge design. The opening ceremony featured a sheep drive across the bridge! More detailed article available on NCE: newcivilengineer.com/innovative-thi…
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