THE mystery of the Shaldon singing bridge may have been solved.
The bridge has had engineers baffled since residents first reported high pitch howling in high winds. They installed monitoring equipment and thought that the problem lay with the railings, but a simple case of a bias-cut drainpipe may be the cause. Sharp-eared resident David Postlethewaite, who has been monitoring weather equipment on the bridge for Devon County Council, noticed that one of the drain-pipes was cut on an angle and may be causing the problem. Following his hunch, Devon County engineers cut the end of the drainage outlet pipe. Now residents at the Shaldon end of the bridge say they have noticed a much softer sound. But there is still whistling at the Teignmouth end. Teign Estuary county councillor David Cox said engineers have explained that the drain pipes may be acting like organ pipes. 'By modifying the offending pipe, the bridge has changed its tune from a high pitched whine to something akin to whale song. 'Well done to David for his public-spirited assistance,' said Cllr Cox. Parish councillor Ron Evans suggested that the all the pipes should be cut to different lengths so the bridge could play a tune in high winds, and become a tourist attraction. Ian Perkins, principal bridge engineer at Devon County Council, said that Mr Postlethwaite's help was greatly appreciated. 'It will be another month or so until we can correlate the data from the anemometer on the bridge, but the modification to the drainage outlet pipe would seem to have had the desired effect, according to residents,' he said.