History
Over the years, flooding of the Cogmans River has periodically devastated Ashton and the surrounding farmlands. The floods of 1981 and 2003 caused major disruptions to local economic activities. In January 1981, the well‑known Ashton canning factory was busy with its peak summer harvest when the factories were flooded between 1m and 2m deep. High‑water marks can be viewed in some buildings. It was recorded that nearly 50% of the wine grapes was lost that year. Further downstream in the area of Van Loveren Wines, the river flow was reportedly more than a kilometre wide.
In 1937, the Cape government constructed two bridges over the Cogmans River on the Ashton Main Road at a cost of £5600. The bridge over the main channel was 100m long. It consisted of 5 earth‑filled concrete arches resting
on concrete piers and abutments. It had a roadway width of only 10 Cape feet (3.14m), with 2ft gravel shoulders, allowing single‑lane traffic only. The second bridge crossed a second stream of the Cogmans River about 50m to the west. It was a single span bridge only 8m long, but was 5.7m wide to match the adjoining road width. To allow two‑way traffic, the narrow main bridge was widened to 10.3m in 1951 at a cost of £10800. The piers were widened to support additional concrete arched walls. Cantilever beams were added to form the wider bridge deck. The second bridge was buried under the upgraded road approaches, because by that time, the river had converged into one main stream.
The new Ashton Arch, consisting of 4 traffic lanes and 2 pedestrian pathways, completely replaced the old bridges. It is wider, longer, and higher than its predecessors, promising better flood resilience and a long service life.
Construction of the Ashton Arch
The new Ashton Arch is a tied‑arch bridge. The roadway deck is carried by steel hanger cables suspended from the two reinforced concrete arches, while each arch is anchored by a horizontal tie‑beam (located between the road lanes and the pedestrian paths). Since the bridge is self anchored with its forces in balance, it allowed the bridge to be constructed in a temporary position adjacent to the road and then moved transversely into its final position. This ensured minimal disruption to traffic during the bridge construction.
A key improvement of the new bridge is the absence of supports in the river. Due to the arch form, the new bridge has a single span of 110m, which significantly improves the hydraulic performance when compared with the previous four large piers that supported the historic bridge.
The Ashton Arch has a design life of 100 years and will be able to withstand a 1‑in‑200‑year flood without overtopping. It has become a landmark of Ashton, complementing the scenic route and paying homage to the road’s history by preserving the arch bridge form.
[http://www.montagu-ashton.info/ashton-floods-and-ashton-arch/]
The new arch bridge weighs a whopping 8000 tons and reaches an altitude of 22 metres. The R130 million Ashton Arch Bridge was officially unveiled on Sunday 15 August 2021.
How to qualify for this virtual cache
You only have one task to perform to qualify for this virtual cache. Take a photo of yourself or a personal item and include it in your log. Your photo must show your caching handle and the date & time of your visit, which you can write on a piece of paper or even your hand. Be creative. Your photo must include any part of the bridge as long as it can be used to verify that you were really there. You're allowed to post multiple photos if your creativity doesn't allow for your caching handle or date to be visible in this photo.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.