ORDSALL CHORD: A SHORT LINK WITH HUGE BENEFITS
It may only be 350 m long, but when the new Ords all Chord open sin December it will have far-reaching effects for rail passengers across the north of England. PAUL STEPHEN discover show the link was planned and built.
Due to open in December 2017, the Ordsall Chord is one of the latest extraordinary feats of engineering to be implemented by Network Rail Infrastructure Projects. It provides another powerful example of how collaborative working can deliver impressive results.
Constructed by an alliance of Network Rail, Skanska, BAM, Amey Sersa and Siemens, alongside Severfield, BDP, Parson Brinckerhoff and Aecom Mott McDonald, the £85 million project involves building 350 metres of new track to link Manchester’s Victoria, Oxford Road and Piccadilly stations for the first time in their history.
As a key element of NR’s £1 billion-plus Great North Rail Project, the link will provide much-needed relief to Piccadilly and help create additional train paths that will equate to a 25% increase in capacity by removing a notorious bottleneck in the city.
It will allow TransPennine Express trains between Leeds and Manchester Airport to be routed through Manchester Victoria and into Piccadilly’s through platforms from the west, obviating the current need to approach from the east, reverse and negotiate the entire station throat to reach the airport.
Historic location
The chord links two existing railways on the western side of the city centre and, in just 350m, crosses the River Irwell, Trinity Way and the Manchester, Bury and Bolton Canal, forcing NR to embark on an ambitious design for the elevated structures required.
It also presented NR with a unique opportunity to celebrate the area’s railway heritage, as the link passes close to the site of the world’s first passenger terminus at Manchester Liverpool Road, now occupied by the Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI).
Many of the surrounding viaducts were designed and constructed by celebrated engineer George Stephenson for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, which was the world’s first inter-city line when it opened on September 15 1830.
Unfortunately, as part of the project, NR had to remove a short section of the Grade II-listed ‘Zig-Zag’ viaduct that carried MoSI’s short rail link to the national network. However, by working in collaboration with English Heritage and Manchester City Council planners, NR enthusiastically grasped the opportunity to clean and renovate the nearby historic Stephenson’s Arch.
During construction, NR was able to open up long-lost views of this Grade I-listed structure spanning the River Irwell by removing a redundant girder bridge built onto the side of it in 1860. A modern pedestrian footbridge was then built in its shadow, from which the original masonry can now be admired at close quarters for the first time in 150 years.
Signature structure
A new public space was also created in the immediate vicinity, while the project’s lead architect, BDP, designed the centrepiece
“As a key element of over £1bn investment in the Great North Rail Project, the link will provide muchneeded relief to Pi cc a dilly and help create additional train paths that will equate to a 25% increase in capacity by removing a notorious bottle neck in the city .”
of the new alignment to be as striking and complimentary as possible. The result is an impressive 90-metre arched bridge spanning the River Irwell.
It is the first main line railway network arch in the UK (and as far as we aware the first main line asymmetric railway network arch in the world), using inclined hangers rather than vertical ones to give a more elegant design and accommodate the curvature of the track. Weighing 600 tonnes, it was lowered into place on February 21 using the biggest crawler crane in the UK.
Tracklaying and the installation of essential systems was almost complete as this issue of RAIL went to press, and less than 10% of the total work remained outstanding, including landscaping and adding architectural finishes, before the first trains can run over it later this year in preparation for the December 2017 timetable change.
Chris Montgomery, Major Programme Director for IP Northern Programmes, says: “Stephenson’s Arch is Grade 1-listed which is the same status as the Houses of Parliament. What we’ve done is to open it up so that it receives the admiration it deserves. It will be illuminated at night and should become quite a feature of the area.
“We’ve worked closely with local authorities and English Heritage to achieve the necessary planning consents and deliver tangible improvements to this key part of our industrial history.
“It’s a fantastic project to work on as we’re enhancing part of the world’s first passenger railway, not to mention putting in a network arch for the first time in the UK, so it’s very much old meets new. I think George Stephenson would be very proud of what we’ve managed to do.”