TV showcase for Crossing
Sunderland’s magnificent New Wear Crossing will take a starring role on TV tonight.
The construction of the city’s impressive bridge will feature on BBC’s The One Show.
A film crew from the BBC’s flagship magazine show spent a day on the bridge site, interviewing the team and capturing footage of the cable stays being installed this summer.
The feature, presented by the show’s science and technology presenter Marty Jopson, is due to be aired on this evening’s show, which starts at 7pm on BBC1.
The film shows the processes of installing the bridge’s 28 cable stays and includes filming from a variety of locations on the construction site in Pallion, including from the basket of a crane and a boat on the river.
Stephen McCaffrey, project director for Farrans Construction and Victor Buyck Steel Construction, which formed FVB joint venture to deliver the project on behalf of Sunderland City Council, said: “We are all incredibly proud to be working on Sunderland’s new bridge, so were delighted to host the film crew from BBC1’s The One Show and explain some of the engineering and technical processes involved.”
Sunderland City Council’s Deputy Council Leader Coun Harry Trueman, said the BBC interest showed the national significance of the scheme.
“The New Wear Crossing is the biggest infrastructure project in the North East, involving a lot of complex and challenging different engineering processes, so we were delighted to showcase what we are doing.
“It is easy to become complacent about the scale and importance of this project, but construction schemes of this size and nature don’t come along very often and the fact we have national TV interest shows that.
“We are looking forward to watching the programme.”
As tonight’s show is live, pre-recorded features could be postponed. If so, the feature will be shown at later.