Contractors on alert for £145m River Dee bridge
The Welsh Government will soon start the tender process for a new single-structure bridge linking the North West and North Wales, a move that has been necessitated due to the deteriorating structure of the current bridge.
Built in 1960, the A494 River Dee bridge is a vital part of the Merseyside, Cheshire, and North Wales trunk road network. An average of 69,200 vehicles cross the bridge every day, according to the Welsh Government.
It is a load that will prove unsustainable for the bridge in the future, which led the government to pursue replacement options late last year.
After a round of consultation, the government has chosen to build a new bridge southeast of the existing one. This structure will be .7 metres wider than the current bridge as a futureproofing mechanism and include active travel links.
This will set the government back £145m, not counting VAT, according to a future tender announcement.
A shared pedestrian/cycle pathway will flow along the western carriageway of the A494 from the bridge through the existing Network Rail underbridge in Queensferry.
The tender notice for the bridge construction contract is anticipated to go live on 13 August. A PIN notice described the procurement process as occurring in phases – the first will be focussed on crafting a shortlist of likely five bidders. Those compiling submissions at this point will have 30 days to do so.
After the shortlist is crafted, those successful bidders will have three months to compile their tender submissions.
The contract will be for a two-stage delivery model with early contractor involvement in the design process. It is worth noting that social value proposals will have a minimum of 10% weighting when analysing the bids.
The contract is valued at £145m and would run from May 2026 to February 2030. It is anticipated that work on site would begin in July 2027 and complete in December 2029.
You can see the contract’s prior information notice on the Sell2Wales website by searching Open Contracting ID ocds-h6vhtk-056aed.
It is really badly needed, but it’s also imperative that they sort out the roads just before it. Where about 6 or 7 merging lanes all congregate into just 2. The traffic needs to join much earlier and be allowed to flow.
By Anonymous
Once the existing bridge has been repaired, will it be adapted to accommodate just the Eastbound carriageway with an extra lane and hard shoulder? Then the westbound carriageway can use all the new bridge and remove the ridiculous congestion-forming merging arrangement there is now.
By Bob