Byker Metro Bridge is one of three viaducts that cross the Ouseburn, a tributary of the River Tyne, in Newcastle city centre. It carries the east-west tracks of the Tyneside Metro system between Newcastle and Gateshead. It is the first such structure in Britain to be built using cantilevered concrete sections with glued joints.
Also called Byker Viaduct, the multi-span Byker Metro Bridge is S-shaped in plan, rising at the east end to cross Byker Road Bridge along its central reservation. The graceful viaduct is 815m long and 8.2m wide. It carries standard gauge double tracks up to 30m above the ground. The spans are up to 68.9m long and six of them are over the river valley.
The reinforced concrete piers have piled foundations designed to resist the centrifugal forces resulting from the curved alignment of the superstructure. The piers have been formed using double I-section beams that flare outwards at their bases, with arched cutouts in the webs between.
The hollow box girder deck is of precast prestressed concrete. It was constructed segmentally by the balanced cantilever method. Joints were counter-cast and glued with epoxy resin.
The viaduct forms part of the St James to Tynemouth section of the Metro system, which was officially opened on 11th November 1982.