Freeman Fox & Partners: Severn Bridge Design

The Severn Bridge, officially opened in 1966, linked the southern industrial part of Wales with England, providing a major saving in the time taken to travel between these areas. The design represented a significant departure from the Forth Bridge, which was built by largely the same team of engineers only two years before. After the war, plans were being prepared to build what had long been seen as the three major outstanding road bridges in Britain: the Firth of Forth, the Severn and the Humber. All had to be suspension bridges and priority was given to the first two, each of which had a main span of approximately 1000m. Initially it was thought the Severn Bridge would be built first. To this end the Ministry of Transport built a wind tunnel where the National Physical Laboratory carried out aerodynamic tests in collaboration with the two engineering firms responsible for the design, Freeman Fox & Partners and Mott, Hay & Anderson.