Ordsall Chord

January 2018

January 2018

January 2018

January 2018. This shows the tension members and their turnbuckles, and the reinforcing pads on the deck beam below the attachment lugs. The lighter-coloured area on the weathered steel arch is where a temporary bracket jad been welded on, having served its purpose during construction: it was one of four on each arch which served to attach temporary 'bowstrings' while the pair of arches was being lifted by an enormous mobile crane

in Manchester and Salford.

Ordsall Chord is a new 300 metre railway link constructed under a Network Rail contract to interconnect Manchester’s main railway stations (Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria).

The most eye-catching part of the link is Britain’s first asymmetric network arch rail bridge, crossing the River Irwell. It was designed by an AECOM Mott MacDonald joint venture (JV), with project architect BDP, and built by a Skanska/BAM/Nuttall joint venture. Severfield fabricated the 89m span steelwork and managed the bridge lift.

The arches are of hexagonal section and diminish in section size from the Salford end (hence the 'asymmetry', which is apparently there for aesthetic reasons). For an interesting account of network arch bridges and their advantages, see here

Subcontractors for the bridge structure included Daver Steels who supplied tension members connecting the arches and deck, cast steel lugs, etc.

See Also

Loading...