Mersey Gateway Bridge
Coordinates: 53 ° 21 '10 " N , 2 ° 42' 47" W.
| Mersey Gateway Bridge | ||
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| Crossing of | River Mersey | |
| place | Runcorn - Widnes | |
| construction | Cable-stayed bridge | |
| overall length | 1022 m | |
| width | 30 m | |
| Longest span | 318 m | |
| start of building | 2014 | |
| completion | 2017 | |
| opening | June 14, 2018 | |
| planner | COWI et al | |
| toll | toll | |
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The Mersey Gateway Bridge leads in the course of the newly constructed A533 as a bypass of the town centers of Widnes and Runcorn over the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal running next to it .
It stands in the area of the English Unitary Authority Borough of Halton about 1.8 km east of the narrow point of the river called Runcorn Gap . There the Runcorn Railway Bridge and the Silver Jubilee Bridge cross the river and canal.
description
The Mersey Gateway Bridge is a toll road bridge for motor vehicles only . It is supposed to cope with regional traffic , while the Silver Jubilee Bridge will serve local traffic after its reopening planned for 2020.
It has three lanes in each direction with very narrow shoulder strips and low concrete guide walls , but no footpath or bike path. On the outer baffles there are wind protection fences with horizontal, semi-transparent slats, between which a view of the landscape is possible - at low tide of the wide silt fields of the River Mersey, of the great arch of the Silver Jubilee Bridge in the west and the cooling towers of the partially decommissioned coal-fired power station Fiddlers Ferry Power Station to the east.
The 2.25 km long and approx. 30 m wide bridge connects to an elevated road over a roundabout in the north and to an intersection structure with an elevated road in the south. The entire Mersey Gateway project included 9.2 km of new or improved roads, 12 new bridges and 7 connection structures.
The main bridge is a 1022 m long cable-stayed bridge with three unequal height, centrally arranged in the longitudinal axis pylon posts made of reinforced concrete . The northern tower is 110 m high, the middle 80 m and the southern 125 m. The two fields between the towers are 294 and 318 m wide, the side fields measure 185 and 205 m. 146 stay cables are arranged in the fan system in the middle of a cable plane between the towers and the roadway girder. The track support is a single prestressed - hollow box with trapezoidal m cross section, a constant height of 4.6 and a cantilevering slab. In the area of the rope anchorages, it is reinforced inside by A-shaped steel struts.
The northern, around 700 m long ramp bridge leads in a long arch to the cable-stayed bridge. The southern, around 540 m long ramp bridge is also curved in plan. They consist of comparable prestressed concrete hollow boxes that form a continuous beam with the main bridge .
history
The Mersey Gateway Bridge Project was and will be carried out as part of a complex operator model (BOT model) in which the planning, construction, financing and operation, including maintenance and servicing, are carried out by a private concessionaire over a period of 30 years.
To this end, the Borough of Halton Council founded the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board Ltd (MGCB) in 1994 to implement and oversee the Mersey Gateway Bridge Project and to collect tolls (including the existing Silver Jubilee Bridge ).
MGCB was advised on all technical and contractual issues by a Technical and Contractual Advisor team , which included Ramboll , CH2M Hill , IBI Group and Knight Architects .
In 2006, the responsible Department for Transport gave general approval for the project. After the change of government following the 2010 election , it was initially questioned, but was confirmed in October.
Before construction could begin, the building site had to be decontaminated for 13 months in a separate contract .
A multi-stage selection process took place from 2011 to 2013, which ended with the appointment of the Merseylink consortium as the concessionaire. The Merseylink consortium consisted of Macquarie Capital , Bilfinger Project Investments and FCC Construcción .
The Merseylink consortium in turn commissioned the Merseylink Design Joint Venture consisting of COWI (which was advised on architectural issues by Dissing + Weitling ), FHECOR, AECOM and Eptisa as well as a construction consortium consisting of FCC Construcción, Samsung C&T Corporation and Kier Infrastructure and Overseas the construction of the project. Emovis is responsible for the electronic toll collection and management .
In 2014, the contracts came into effect and construction began.
A temporary construction bridge was built across the River Mersey, from which the foundation and all other work were supplied with material and equipment. The three sections of the cable-stayed bridge were constructed using a symmetrical cantilever . The hollow girders of the two ramp bridges were concreted with two 157 m long and 8 m high advancing scaffolds which, despite their length, could make their bends. The cantilevered carriageway slab was concreted to the hollow girders with a trailing scaffolding that extended over the entire width of the carriageway.
The bridge was completed in October 2017 and opened to traffic.
The grand opening by Queen Elizabeth II took place on June 14, 2018 at a more pleasant time of the year. On the same evening, the completion of the largest infrastructure project in Great Britain at the time was celebrated with a large fireworks display.
The following year she received the Outstanding Structure Award from the IABSE - International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering .
Web links
- Photos on The Mersey Gateway
Individual evidence
- ^ The Mersey Gateway Project Official Website
- ↑ The sources indicate dimensions that differ slightly from one another.
- ^ A bridge to prosperity. Project overview from July 2010, on merseygateway.co.uk
- ↑ Photo on constructionenquirer.com
- ↑ Aaron Morby: Mersey Gateway Bridge set to open early on constructionenquirer.com
- ↑ Mersey Gateway scheme on newcivilengineer.com
- ^ Rob Wilson: Knight Architects' Mersey Gateway Bridge opens. Architect's Journal, October 16, 2017
- ↑ a b c The Mersey Gateway - six lane toll bridge on ramboll.com
- ^ Mersey Gateway Crossings Board at merseygateway.co.uk
- ^ IBI Group
- ^ Knight Architects
- ↑ Mersey £ 431m bridge plan escapes spending review cuts on BBC News , October 17, 2010
- ↑ Merseylink announced as Mersey Gateway Project preferred bidder on merseygateway.co.uk
- ↑ £ 600 million Mersey Gateway Bridge on macquarie.com
- ↑ Mersey Gateway Bridge on dissingweitling.com
- ↑ FHECOR
- ↑ Eptisa
- ^ Northwest England's "Iconic" New Cable-Stayed Bridge Nearing Completion on news.samsungcnt.com
- ↑ Mersey Gateway Project on kier.co.uk
- ↑ emovis
- ↑ Closing , a formally regulated entry into force that is unusual in German contracts
- ↑ The Mersey Gateway on ramboll.com (PDF)
- ↑ Video: Mersey Gateway bridge building machine “Webster” on ukconstructionmedia.co.uk
- ↑ Photo of the trailing scaffolding
- ↑ Mersey Gateway Bridge opens to traffic on aecom.com
- ↑ The £ 1.86bn Mersey Gateway Bridge opened on Saturday. on newcivilengineer.com
- ↑ The new Mersey Gateway Bridge is open. on merseygateway.co.uk
- ^ Mersey Gateway Bridge, UK on iabse.org
