£12m Ordsall Chord footbridge finally opens
The pedestrian and cycle route between Salford and Manchester was completed in 2017, but construction work on either side of the River Irwell meant the bridge was not ready for the public until yesterday.
The footbridge sits underneath the Ordsall Chord railway bridge, which was built at the same time. The pedestrian bridge replaced Prince’s Street bridge, which was demolished in 2015 to make way for the railway bridge.
On one end, the bridge opens out onto Aviva Studios, the new name for Manchester’s Factory International venue. On the other side of the river sits English Cities Fund’s £60m, 211-apartment Novella. The Salford side also has panels that explore the history of the nearby grade one-listed Stephenson Bridge.
The Ordsall Chord footbridge was a £12m project for Network Rail. Remarking at the bridge’s official opening on Thursday, Network Rail principal development manager Jill Stephenson said: “It’s great to see this footbridge finally in use as it’s been waiting in the wings since the completion of the Ordsall Chord railway bridge in 2017.
“It was always built with the future in mind, and it’s been incredible to see the area redevelop on both sides of the river in recent years,” she continued.
“The footbridge can now play the role we always intended it to – connecting residents to their homes, workplaces, leisure, and world-class venues in both cities, directly underneath the iconic Ordsall Chord above.”
The Ordsall Chord project team included Skanska Bam, Siemens, Amey Sersa, Severfield, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Aecom, and Mott MacDonald. Architect BDP designed the two bridges.
“The design of Ordsall Chord was always about connectivity,” said BDP head of transport Peter Jenkins.
“It responded to both the unique context of the world’s first passenger railway and the position of the site straddling the city centres of Manchester and Salford,” he continued. “It considered the benefits to the city, unlocking railway routes, improving connections, and providing faster journey times.
“The pedestrian footbridge is the final piece of that puzzle, opening up new routes for the public, allowing people to get closer to this wonderful piece of design and engineering.”
Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett, Manchester City Council Leader Cllr Bev Craig, and Network Rail’s Jill Stephenson officially opened Ordsall Chord footbridge on Thursday. p Network Rail
Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett and Manchester City Council Leader Cllr Bev Craig were both present at the bridge’s opening.
Dennett said: “Bridges have played a huge role in literally bringing our cities together and forging links. Our two cities worked together to span the Irwell way back in 1830 with the Stephenson Bridge. Today, this bridge is further evidence of our joint commitment to opening up the cities and to providing alternative, greener options for crossing our famous river border.”
Craig added: “While the river Irwell is seen as a geographical boundary it is not a barrier between the flow of people, trade, and ideas. It’s particularly welcome that this new bridge will connect Aviva Studios, a world-class arts and social attraction and the new home of Factory International, and the new St Johns area with growing new districts on the Salford side of the Irwell.
“It’s a symbolic celebration of using culture as an economic and regeneration driver to deliver mutual success in growth of new jobs, communities, and districts to benefit our city region.”
Aviva Studios….groan
By Tony Wilson
As someone who cycles this route to town regularly, it’s been a long time coming! Looks nice though.
By Anonymous
@Tony Wilson, they only named that for the money. If we just keep calling it factory no one cares. Aviva want their name on it for advertising? I’m fine with that.
By Sixxth
I went to the Aviva today, it’s great, shame about the typically Manchester weather though, I wanted a Hip Hip Chip Shop but it was chucking it down
By Phi
Passed this area yesterday as they were busy clearing all the graffiti off – hopefully now it’s open and gains some footfall it’ll stay that way.
By Anonymous
I bet the footbridge will see more use than the almost redundant rail bridge passing above!
By WayFay
“The pedestrian footbridge is the final piece of that puzzle, opening up new routes for the public”. Peter Jenkins at BDP appears to have forgotten that this route was already a road bridge before Ordsal Chord was built. shows how long it’s been.
By Albert
Good to see another important Active Travel component in place.
Sure it will get plenty of use.
😁👍🚲
By John Holiday
Why do folk keey saying it rains a lot in Manchester. It does not. Most Northern and Central European cities have more wetter days. Check the meteorology tables. Stop mindlessly repeating fake news and bad mouthing your homeland.
By James Yates
Brilliant to see the bridge finally open. I used this route during marathon training&thought it looked sad all fenced off! The future is bright!
By Pete in the city
Set up video cameras. Make vandals (or their parent(s), pay to clear off their daubings plus all extra costs and a surcharge. That would teach them or if not the council would make a profit. Why should I pay for the damage other folk cause?
By Anonymous
A bridge to nowhere. Cross the river to be confronted with a dual carrigeway. I mean I’m pleased its there but the amount of public money for used for it is crazy.
By misery guts
London get’s Crossrail,we get another cycle lane, overlooked by a redundant railway line. I can hardly contain myself.
By Elephant
@wayfay What are you on about? I overlook Ordsall Bridge, its always got trains passing over it.
By Russ
James Yates, you’re wrong, it rains a lot in Manchester, in fact it rains most days, and it is cold, dark and windy
By ChorltonRed
@‘ChorltonRed’
James Yates is actually right here. And if it’s wet – just dress for the weather.
By SW
@James Yates. It does rain a lot in MCR. You also have to be careful when just looking at some meteorological figures and not all of them as a whole. Yes, actual figures may show more rainfall in other cities, but you also have to take into account hours of sunshine, temperature, volume of rain etc. I’ve lived in cities around the world that have much more “rainfall” than Manchester on paper, but what that usually means is that it rained really hard for a short period of time, then it’s sunny for much longer, the ground dries quickly and 15 minutes after the rain stops you never knew it rained.
Manchester is cold, wet, often windy and grey. There are still places in the world with worse weather, but our bad weather is something everyone who has lived outside of the UK or further south in the UK notices when coming here.
By Jo
Hey folks, I love talking about the weather as much as the next person – but lets keep the conversation on topic. That topic is the Ordsall Chord pedestrian bridge opening, not whether or not it rains more in Manchester than in other places.
By Julia Hatmaker
A chord was proposed in the late-1970s and parliamentary powers for its construction were received in 1979, but the project was cancelled. Network Rail revived the proposal in 2010 as part of its Northern Hub proposal. Funding for its construction totalling £85 million was announced in the 2011 United Kingdom budget and construction commenced in 2016. It became operational on 10 December 2017.
However its use since becoming operational has been limited as no additional capacity at Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly has been built to cope with more through services.
By Philco
@Russ, the rail bridge was designed for 12 trains per hour but it only gets 4 due to the rest of the Hub scheme being cancelled. You’d never have made the case for building it with such low projected use. The footbridge on the other hand is pretty much guaranteed to exceed expectations with lots of new resi going up around there.
By WayFay
Yes Russ, but only half the trains it was built for and guess why that is? Because Westminster pulled the plug on financing two extra platforms at Piccadilly station. Never mind, we can all use the Elizabeth line, when we visit the capital and dream for more cycle lanes.
By Elephant
@Elephant
You’re off the mark on this one.
It’s quite nice to pass over the Irwell but under the rail line at the same time!
It’s a beautiful feat of engineering actually and I’m glad they’ve started opening up what is quite a significant part of the city centre and holds some fantastic industrial architecture.
The vistas of the latest additions to the Deansgate Sq look quite stunning as well. I’m beginning to think Manchester will end up growing something fantastic in the long run with their skyscraper quarter.
For any photographers reading this, I would highly recommend you visit!
By Impressed