Manchester’s Ordsall Chord completes

The Ordsall Chord, a 300m stretch of rail track and a series of new bridges and viaducts in Manchester designed by BDP, has now completed. The occasion was celebrated today [9 November] with an event attended by Rail Minister Paul Maynard MP and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.

The new rail link connects Manchester’s Piccadilly and Victoria stations for the first time and unlocks new routes and improve connections and journey times across the north of England, as well as new direct links from the north to Manchester Airport.

Central to the design is the world’s first asymmetric network arch bridge which crosses the River Irwell and sits alongside an 1830 bridge by pioneering rail engineer George Stephenson which has been painstakingly renovated.

Peter Jenkins head of transport says: “Our holistic design solution integrates transport architecture, heritage assets and local regeneration which places railway infrastructure at the heart of a new urban community.”

BDP designed all the major architectural and urban realm elements of the project, including the landscaping and lighting to public spaces and heritage features beneath the bridges and viaducts which will complete early next year.