Approach road takes shape at Mersey Gateway

The Mersey Gateway’s bridge-building machine MSS Webster has built the section of the approach road in Runcorn that will take traffic across the Manchester Ship Canal and onto the new bridge.

Construction teams cast the second span of the south elevated approach viaduct this week, 25m above the waterway. The work involved pouring 160 truckloads of concrete into a 1,155 cubic metre mould over a 24-hour period.

The Movable Scaffolding System will cast eight reinforced concrete spans in total to create the central section of the approach road.

Marc Heaps, approach roads operations manager at the Merseylink consortium, said: “This was one of the more challenging pours on the project as working above the Ship Canal required extra planning and a change in logistics. We couldn’t place the concrete pumps underneath the machine or they’d have been under water. Instead we used additional pumps on top to give us access.”

This particular Movable Scaffolding System was named by Halton schoolchildren after local engineer John James Webster, who built the Widnes Transporter Bridge.

The concrete pour

The Merseylink Consortium was appointed by Halton Borough Council as the project company in 2014, on a 30-year contract to design, build, finance and operate the project.

The equity partners are Macquarie Capital Group, BBGI, and FCC Construcción. The construction joint venture is made up of Kier Infrastructure & Overseas, Samsung C&T and FCC Construcción. Emovis will deliver and operate the tolling solution for the consortium.