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The Values and Significance of the Colonial Steel Railway Bridges of Pakistan

Ayesha Pamela Rogers* and Ghulam Mustafa Baloch

Cultural Studies Department, National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan
* Corresponding author: culturalheritagenca@gmail.com


ABSTRACT  This paper proposes that Civil Engineering Heritage is a distinct form of heritage, related to but differing from Industrial Heritage and a separate field that should be treated independently. The critical element that signifies engineering heritage is ingenium or innovation in development of complex technological responses to physical challenges. Engineering heritage requires specific approaches to its identification, documentation, conservation and management. The important first step of this process is a clear understanding of the values and attributes that contribute to the significance of engineering heritage and must be safeguarded. The example of engineering heritage examined here is the colonial steel railway bridges of Pakistan; three case study bridges are presented and the values and attributes of each are discussed. The paper then identifies a set of shared essential values of this type of engineering heritage that can serve as a basis for value-based conservation and management.

KEYWORDS  civil engineering, heritage, bridges, colonial, Pakistan, values, innovation

Received June 12, 2017; accepted December 5, 2017.

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