Construction of the Mersey Gateway crossing can finally begin after financial close on the £600M project was reached last Friday.

Procurement savings worth £250M have been found by Halton Borough Council and the Merseylink consortium, following a commitment by the Chancellor in the Budget to provide a £270M guarantee to support the project.

“We are very pleased to have finalised this deal,” said project director Stephen Cardwell. “We have already started to engage with the local supply chain and potential employees and the response we have had has been encouraging.”

Initial contracts worth a total of £10M are likely to go to businesses in the North West of England. This will include work to construct cofferdams in the river and the building of haul roads to provide access to site.

The Mersey Gateway will be a 1km long cable stayed crossing of the river between Runcorn and Widnes, carrying three lanes of traffic in each direction. Around 10km of highway on the approach to the crossing will be built or upgraded and free flow tolling is to be introduced.

Completion of the Mersey Gateway is due in the autumn of 2017, following which the nearby Silver Jubilee Bridge will close for maintenance and be remodelled as a local bridge with improved public transport facilities.

Halton Borough Council’s former leader Tony McDermott welcomed the start of works. “At last we are entering the home straight in our 20 year struggle to build a new crossing of the river,” he said. “The Mersey Gateway will be a towering piece of urban architecture.”

(Image: Mersey Gateway)

To return to the newsletter, please close this window.