Mersey Gateway, Liverpool Bridge Project, England Infrastructure Development, English Architecture

Mersey Gateway Project, England

English Bridge Development in Merseyside, north west England – design by FCC Construcción

20 Jun 2013

Liverpool Central Library Building

Design: FCC Construcción

Location: River Mersey, England

image from FCC

FCC wins £600 million Mersey bridge contract, its largest project in the UK

The contract includes the design, construction, finance, maintenance and operation of the new Mersey Gateway Bridge

The bridge is projected to carry over 80,000 vehicles per day

More than 4,600 direct and indirect jobs will be created in the construction, operation and maintenance of the bridge

Madrid/London, 20 June 2013. FCC, the Spanish infrastructure and environmental services group, has been awarded the contract to design, build, finance, maintain and operate the Mersey Gateway Bridge in Liverpool (UK). Worth approximately 600 million pounds, it is FCC’s largest-ever contract in the UK.

The new structure will be 2.13 kilometres long in its entirety and carry approximately 80,000 vehicles per day. Bridge construction is expected to commence in early 2014 and to last three-and-a-half years; it is scheduled to be opened to traffic in the first half of 2017.

FCC, is a member of the two winning consortia (concession and construction). Its partners are Bilfinger and Macquarie, in the concession consortium, and Samsung CT and Kier, in construction. Other finalists for the contract included multinational companies such as Balfour Beatty, Bouygues, Hochtief and Iridium.

Rafael Foulquie, FCC Construccion UK & Ireland Managing Director, said:
“We are thrilled to be announced as preferred bidder for the Mersey Gateway Bridge. We have been expanding our UK operations steadily, and to be selected for such an important project – not just in terms of infrastructure, but also economically- is a huge step for us. This is FCC Construccion’s second PPP project in the UK, and we are delighted to have succeeded with our design that is both innovative and cost effective. We are looking forward to being a part of the substantial benefits the new bridge will bring locally, both in terms of local employment and urban regeneration.”

The project
FCC will build the new Mersey Gateway Bridge, which including accesses will measure over 2 kilometres in length, to the east of the Silver Jubilee Bridge, which was inaugurated in the 1960s and is experiencing severe traffic congestion.

The core of the contract is the construction of the bridge itself, which will measure 1 kilometre in length. The cable-stayed structure will be 42 metres wide and have a maximum height of 125 metres. The project also includes upgrading 7 kilometres of access roads, building 2.5 kilometres of new toll road, and upgrading 4.5 km of toll roads, as well other communication links. A multi-lane free-flow tolling system will be installed which will read number plates automatically without requiring traffic to stop.

Improved infrastructure
The construction, operation and maintenance of the new bridge will create 4,600 jobs, both direct and indirect. The project will benefit not only the region of Liverpool (population of more than 1.6 million), but also northwest England.

Experience in bridge construction
FCC has extensive experience in building bridges. In the last 15 years, FCC has built over one million square metres of bridges of all types using all modern construction methods. It has built the Alamillo bridge (Seville), a bridge in Saxony (Germany), the Otopeni bridge (Bucharest), the Azud del Oro bridge (Valencia), the Basarab viaduct (Romania) and the San Marcos viaduct (Mexico), the second-tallest in the world.

Last week, FCC Construction inaugurated one of the most important connection hubs in the European Union: the bridge connecting Vidin (Bulgaria) and Calafat (Romania). The Prime Ministers of both countries attended the inauguration.

It is currently building major bridges such as the Centennial Bridge in Panama and the Gerald Desmond Bridge in Los Angeles (US).

Mersey Gateway Project images / information received from FCC

Location: River Mersey, Liverpool, Merseyside, north west England, UK