Preliminary Design of the Mersey Gateway Structures

The Mersey Gateway is a proposed scheme for a new crossing of the River Mersey upstream of the existing bridge at Runcorn. The scheme will be let as a Design Build Finance and Operate contract. A preliminary design for the scheme has been developed to determine the alignment and required structures to carry the new route over the Mersey Estuary. A family of structures has been developed for the approaches with a common them for finishes that compliments that of the main crossing. The crossing of the River Mersey will be a 4-span cable stayed structured with varying height towers. The outline design has been developed taking into account environmental and physical constraints and allowing for possible construction methods. The appearance of the bridge has been considered in some detail to determine the form of the cable stayed structure, including the deck, cable array and towers.