New bridge design over the Irwell

The joint venture has been working on the design of the £85m viaduct project to link the city’s Victoria and Piccadilly stations since 2013 under an early contractor involvement alliance.

Under the new delivery arrangement Amey, Skanska, Bam Nuttall, and signalling and power specialist Siemens have formed a partnership alliance with Network Rail.

The original aim was to begin construction on the project in late 2014 or early 2015, but the planning process significantly delayed the timescale.

A 340m long viaduct will join the Bolton line with the Chat Moss line, crossing the Irwell on a new bridge.

This work will help ease a rail bottleneck to the south of Manchester Piccadilly station and enable faster, more frequent services to run across the north of England.

Ordsall chord map

It forms part of the Northern Hub project to improve railway services across northern England.

During the delivery phase contractors will draw on the collaborative experience of each of the partners, using BIM technology to bring whole-life costing and carbon foot-printing considerations to the whole project.

Preparatory work has been taking place for a number of months on overhead lines, signalling, waterproofing and piling.

The next phase will see existing track outside Manchester Victoria station realigned so the chord will be able to fit in.