Big New E2m.
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Runcorn Bridge
ABRIDGE which will cost £2m. and incorporate the largest steel-arch span in Great Britain is to replace the old transporter bridge which has for 45 years carried road traffic over the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal between Runcorn and Widnes.
The Minister of Transport has written to the Runcorn-Widnes Bridge Joint Committee, representing both the Lancashire and Cheshire County Councils, and said that he is prepared to make a grant up to £1,547,250 towards the estimated cost of the bridge. A contract for building the bridge substructure has been let to Leonard Fairclough, Ltd., and work will begin immediately.
The new bridge will save time for heavy north-south traffic and provide a better link between the industrial areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Many drivers, unwilling to accept the delays inherent in the present transporter system, make their journeys via Liverpool or Warrington. When the new bridge is completed, it will relieve traffic congestion in these towns.
The bridge and approaches, extending for nearly four-fifths of a mile, will ierminate at two roundabouts at Greenway Road, Runcorn, and Irwell Street, • Widnes. The bridge will be 1,632 ft. long and incorporate a main span of 1,082 ft. and two 275-ft. trusses. , The Minister has published two draft schemes indicating the intended line of 11 miles of motorway to by-pass Slough and Maidenhead. This will be built at a cost of some &II-Fn. The by-pass has been planned as part of the proposed motorway between London and South Wales, and will run south of Slough and Maidenhead but north of Windsor, crossing the Thames near Bray.
A new bridge costing about £1 m. is to be built across the River Dee at Queensferry. During the holiday season queues of vehicles of up to three miles long form in the area, and congestion is stated to dislocate industry.