Chappel Viaduct

The Chappel Viaduct is a railway viaduct that crosses the River Colne in the Colne Valley in Essex, England. It carries the Gainsborough Line which now is a short branch linking in Essex to in Suffolk. The line previously, however, extended to Shelford in Cambridgeshire.It was completed in 1849 by a company which was later absorbed into the Great Eastern Railway. It is the longest bridge in the East Anglia region at 1060ft, and one of the largest brick-built structures in the country. It was listed at Grade II in 1967.DescriptionThe viaduct consists of 32 semi-circular spans, each of 30ft span with tapered piers; it is 1060ft long and rises to a maximum height of 75ft. The piers consist of two shafts, separated by a 6ft opening, and joined at the top and bottom by arches; each shaft contains a hollow void up to 4ft by 3ft, partially filled with concrete to the level of the bottom arch. The running level of the viaduct has a gradient of 1 in 120.ConstructionThe seven million bricks used in the construction of the viaduct were made from clay excavated from the nearby village of Bures. It was built to carry a double-track railway but only a single track was laid. The bridge was built by Peter Bruff between 1847 and 1849 for the Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury & Halstead Railway, later part of the Great Eastern Railway.