Woodroad Viaduct

During the late 1840s, the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway company embarked on the construction of a southern extension of the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway to connect through to the border city of Carlisle. The selected route necessitated the construction of a crossing over the Lugar Water near the town of Cumnock; the task of designing this structure was assigned to the civil engineer John Miller, who had prior professional involvement in the company, in particular the surveying of the route. Millar decided upon the use of a relatively elegant ashlar masonry viaduct for this crossing. As built, the sandstone viaduct has a length of 229 metres and reaches a peak…

During its design process, the structure had to effectively account for several important local factors. In terms of its footing, the ground was less than ideal due to the presence of not only the Lugar Water but also of considerable mining activities. Specifically, as a result of the area having been rich in both limestone and coal, it had been worked for some time by various locals, commonly using a room and pillar technique . As these workings posed a clear threat to the stability of any major structure built around them, preliminary work was undertaken to locate these cavities, after which they would be cleared of loose debris and firmly packed using dry stone. This activity proved…