Spey Viaduct collapsed spans: staged removal and investigation insights for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Spey Viaduct’s collapsed spans over the River Spey will be cut and lifted out in sections under a Moray Council plan to create safe access for structural and geotechnical investigation following the 14 December failure. The segmented removal will allow close inspection of critical elements such as bearings, pier foundations and connection details that are currently submerged or unstable in the river channel. Findings are expected to inform both the viaduct’s future and any revisions to inspection and scour management regimes on similar river crossings.
Technical Brief
- Segmented removal will likely use mobile cranes and temporary lifting frames staged from both riverbanks.
- Cut lines must be planned around existing welds, riveted joints and residual stress concentrations.
- Access platforms and cofferdams may be required around piers to expose foundations and bearing seats safely.
- Failure investigation will focus on scour depth, pier undermining, bearing condition and fatigue or corrosion at connections.
- Continuous survey monitoring of remaining spans and piers is expected during cutting to detect any progressive movement.
- CDM Regulations and temporary works design checks will govern lifting operations, exclusion zones and worker access routes.
Our Take
Within the 620 Infrastructure stories in our database, only a small subset of ‘Failure’ and ‘Safety’ items involve historic river crossings like Spey Viaduct, which tend to expose complex issues around scour, ageing foundations and inspection regimes rather than simple superstructure defects.
The staged removal of the collapsed spans over the River Spey will likely be treated by Moray Council and their engineers as a rare full‑scale forensic opportunity, with lessons on hydraulic loading and residual capacity that can be fed back into management of other legacy steel and timber bridges in Scotland and the wider UK.
Given how many ‘Projects’‑tagged failures in our coverage ultimately trigger revised design standards or new monitoring requirements, the December 14 collapse date is important: it falls in the high‑flow season for the Spey, which may strengthen the case for more conservative flood and debris‑impact allowances on similar river viaducts.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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