Footbridge restoration wins engineering award
THE Canal & River Trust has won a major engineering award for its sympathetic restoration of a historic Grade II-listed footbridge across the Trent & Mersey Canal in Middlewich, Cheshire.
Canal engineers Tania Snelgrove, Ian Draycott and Helen Braidwood have been presented with a coveted heritage award from the Institution of Structural Engineers (Midlands), for a partnership project that also involved specialists from Arcadis, Kier and de Havilland.
Tania, who managed the project, said: “We are delighted to be given industry recognition for what was a challenging restoration. The old bridge was badly corroded, so our engineers had to come up with innovative ways of preserving as much of the original steel structure as possible while ensuring it could still carry modern loads.
“Some weathering is clearly visible but unique historical features, which were too badly rusted, had to be replicated. The structural elements were all painted black, as in the original colour scheme, including the new ‘U’ frames which strengthen the bridge.”
She added: “The new mesh on the parapets is the same woven mesh used at the Eden Project and is so light that it appears to vanish when viewed from a distance – allowing the structure to appear very much as it did over a hundred years ago.”
Big Lock Footbridge provides an important pedestrian crossing point across the canal. The trust carried out a £330,000 restoration after the bridge had to be closed for safety reasons. A temporary pedestrian crossing was installed alongside it and the trust created a special cradle to lift the old bridge safely on to a low loader.
The elegant Victorian structure was then transported to a specialist firm for grit blasting, followed by a sensitive and detailed restoration. It was then craned back in and reopened to the public in June 2021.