Eric Wright awarded £4m contract for Salford highway upgrades
The construction group’s civils division has been appointed to make a busy junction close to Salford Central station more pedestrian and cycle-friendly, while also delivering improvements along Chapel Street.
Salford City Council has awarded Eric Wright Civil Engineering a £3.9m contract for the package of works. The contractor was the only firm to submit a “compliant” tender for the job and scored 81.60% for its submission, including full marks for price, according to a report to the city council’s procurement board.
The scheme is effectively two projects in one. One element will see the junction of New Bailey Street and Chapel Street upgraded and the second part calls for improvements eastwards along Chapel Street towards the junction with Blackfriars.
Casey Group was appointed to deliver the Chapel Street improvements – which include relocating bus stops and implementing a zebra crossing – in 2021 but later walked away from the job citing “unprecedented market conditions and global events”.
EWCE will carry out both schemes concurrently.
The deadline for the completion of GMCA-funded works is November 2025.
Throw tram tracks down to preempt the inevitable and save money digging it back up
By Verticality
@Verticality
Surely based on the same logic we should be building an underground met route at a location so close to the city centre?
By Anonymous
Thought they were thinking of putting a tram from Media City to St Peter’s via Salford Crescent and Spinningfields so I guess most of this will be ripped up again eventually.
By Quail
I hope that isn’t block paving on the road surface. It will last a couple of months before it’s patched with tarmac.
Other than that, looks positive!
By Salford6
This work will be absolute karno’s for access to the City Centre from the Salford/Bury New Road side. Already logjammed most of the time so will force traffic along Irwell St/Quay St, which already has restrictions. Looks great for the Uber Eats cyclists though.
By John0407
Great news! The next junction down the road Chapel Street / Blackfriars Rd needs equal investment and attention, if not more due to its location in a Conservation Area.
By Not so anonymous
Wow, this is stunning. Puts Manchester City Council and their dysfunctional highways department to absolute shame.
By Anonymous
Great, an eyesore at present & major severance. Hopefully some spill out space for the Black Lion.
By Anonymous
I hope they do a faster job than the Kirkham regeneration scheme. 18 months on and STILL not finished. I reckon the pyramids got built faster.
By Derek Collier
1 do we really need this??
2 as others say put the Tram line down instead of cycle lanes which nobody will ever use, do these planning people ever just stand at these places and watch who and what uses these roads??. Region road roundabout is dangerous. It needs something to do with it. The yellow box junctions were put back. And left turn lines included. Surely they could spare a bit of paint tooRegent Road roundabout is dangerous. It needs something to do with it. The yellow box junctions put back and left turn lines included surely they could spare a bit of paint too.
And please don’t even get me started on the dam potholes!!! Everywhere around Salford!!.
By Katrina bell
Katrina – not many people cycle currently because it’s dangerous to do so. Implementing safe cycling infrastructure will mean more people feel confident to cycle. On your point about potholes – cycles are way less intensive on the roads than cars. Getting more people cycling will mean fewer cars on the roads: therefore less congestion and less impact on the road surface. If you want less congestion, fewer potholes, and cheaper council tax I would be supporting more cycling lanes.
By Anonymous
Looks great, however if you want to see how it will look in 10 years drive to pointon village, its vey pretty at first but a maintenance nightmare !
By Anon-potomus
We spend all this money to redo roads with cycle lanes, but yet the only cyclists I ever see are the Deliveroo guys who use the pavements… Just get a tram down chapel street from exchange asap
By Anonymous