Information for those visiting the Isle of Wight.

[Damian]

As many of you may know, there is a floating bridge link between Cowes and East Cowes.
Well, in its wisdom the Isle of Wight Council have had a new floating bridge made by a company in Wales...........go figure that as the Island, and especially Cowes is renowned for ship building...........at a cost of £3.2 Million.

As with all Government contracts, the delivery date was delayed......not unexpected....but they took the old bridge out of service a MONTH before the original delivery date.........so far what was expected by the residents.

Now,,,,,the new floating bridge was towed from Wales to the Island over a 3 week period and eventually arrived, but the staff had to have another month getting used to the new bridge and then it went into operation for all of 2 hours before it lost all power just off shore and all the people on it had to wade through the water to get off !!!

The bridge then was out of action for another couple of months whilst they sorted the problem out, having to get the builders from Wales to come over to work on it, rather than if they had built it at Cowes the engineers would have been on hand immediately.

So, eventually it goes back into action for all of 2 hours before it gets grounded on the slipway at East Cowes and is out of action until High Tide, some 6 hours later.
Repeat the above a second time a couple of days later, grounded again.

Now, the solution............. the bridge cannot operate for 1 hour either side of Low water !!!!!!!!!

You really could not write a comedy like this !!!!!!

The moral is that if you do use the floating bridge , be prepared to be stranded, or simply unable to get off, and mind your front end of the car as the angle of the ramps is not right and you WILL drag the front spoiler on your car on the concrete slipway.

 

[KeefySher]

Bet pound to a penny it was the 'lowest price' bid that as usual turns out to be the 'highest cost' wot was ordered.

Is it not just a chain ferry? Is 'floating bridge' just contemporary trend of up naming things so as we forget our heritage?

Wouldn't take the caravan on it, and would need to lift the current tug on it's air suspension so as not to bottom the front chrome lip and rear false exhaust chrome trims, see it's all about image and no substance here in the 21st century.

See local news reports on this debacle regularly.

Let's hope the fixed link bridge isn't put out to 'lowest price'.

How is the collapse road coming along?

 

[Damian]

Quote " Is it not just a chain ferry? Is 'floating bridge' just contemporary trend of up naming things so as we forget our heritage? "

Yes it is a chain ferry BUT it has always been known as the Floating Bridge.

So, there is no "contemporary trend of up naming" going on,

Quote " How is the collapse road coming along? "

Which one????? there are several roads collapsing due to the geology of the Island.

 

[KeefySher]

Quote " Is it not just a chain ferry? Is 'floating bridge' just contemporary trend of up naming things so as we forget our heritage? "

Yes it is a chain ferry BUT it has always been known as the Floating Bridge.

So, there is no "contemporary trend of up naming" going on,

Quote " How is the collapse road coming along? "

Which one????? there are several roads collapsing due to the geology of the Island.

Which begs the question of 'why not make a modern version of the old one". The operating environment is the same, unlike the works for the bigger ferries from pompey with the double deck un/loading, even if the new boat is being built in Turkey It's not rocket science.

Must be the skills shortage we hear so much about. The short skills must be not listening to experience

Haven't visited for many a year, hence not realising the name Maybe later this year if the ferry deals are worth it. Very expensive bit of water to cross.

 

[camel]

We normally go over to the IOW every other year stopping at Waverley Park, but not this year, I loved that old chain link ferry especially staggering back from the other side,

 

[DaveA1]

Never knew such a ferry existed, and been to I,O.W a few times, so checked out its route and history, remarkable really, Says it has been carrying CARS and animals since 1842???????????? Wonder what type of horse power they used.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Wonder what type of horse power they used.

Probably steam not horses. :cheer:

 

[VicMallows]

It was out of action for 2 hours this morning due to a low tide . We are on Neaps in the Solent at present! Expect some l-o-n-g outages on Spring Tides!!

However, if you hurry, it's FREE until July as 'compensation' :dry: (It was a sad day when they started charging for foot passengers last year .... it had previously always been free.).

 

[DrZhivago]

in its wisdom the Isle of Wight Council have had a new floating bridge made by a company in Wales...........go figure that as the Island, and especially Cowes is renowned for ship building...........at a cost of £3.2 Million.

At least that's better than if it had been built in Poland or China.

Is it not just a chain ferry? Is 'floating bridge' just contemporary trend of up naming things so as we forget our heritage?

"Floating bridge" is an old term, I remember my father using it for just about any short ferry service. Stupid neverthless, because it implies a pontoon bridge.

 

[camel]

So the Transporter Bridge over the river Tees could be a flying bridge,

 

[KeefySher]

So the Transporter Bridge over the river Tees could be a flying bridge,

Isn't that now in America serving a Navahoe casino?

I'm sure I saw a TV show where the geordies from Auf Weidersein Pet dismantled it

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

"Floating bridge" is an old term, I remember my father using it for just about any short ferry service. Stupid neverthless, because it implies a pontoon bridge.

Isn't that exactly what it is, and it pulls itself from one side to the other by means of chains. Two other examples I can think of are the Torpoint crossing in Devon and across the mouth of Poole harbour.

 

[KeefySher]

"Floating bridge" is an old term, I remember my father using it for just about any short ferry service. Stupid neverthless, because it implies a pontoon bridge.

Isn't that exactly what it is, and it pulls itself from one side to the other by means of chains. Two other examples I can think of are the Torpoint crossing in Devon and across the mouth of Poole harbour.

Isn't Torpoint in Cornwall??

 

[DrZhivago]

"Floating bridge" is an old term, I remember my father using it for just about any short ferry service. Stupid neverthless, because ["floating bridge"] implies a pontoon bridge.

Isn't that exactly what it is, and it pulls itself from one side to the other by means of chains.

No, this is a pontoon bridge (the one on the right!) :-

A pontoon bridge is principally a military device. As Wikipedia says, it has a continuous deck.

 

[Damian]

I fail to see what all the nitpicking is over the Floating Bridge.
It has been said, and followed up by a picture, that the name implies a pontoon bridge which is so wrong as to be laughable, the Cowes Floating Bridge is not fixed at either end, neither is it supported on pontoons at various points across the Medina.

It is a bridge, ie it links one side of the river with the other in place of a road, and it floats !!! Its a Floating Bridge !!

Because the river has a lot of boat traffic, both leisure and commercial ,the Floating Bridge cannot be anchored in one place as to stop river traffic and has to be moved at various times to allow shipping to pass.
It is powered by on board motors which pull a chain over a wheel to pull itself across the river, but it is still a bridge, and it still floats (most of the time)