Salford Quays Lift Bridge

The Salford Quays lift bridge or Salford Quays Millennium footbridge is a 91. 2-metre long vertical lift bridge spanning the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The bridge, which was completed in 2000, is near the terminus of the ship canal at the old Manchester Docks. It links Salford Quays to MediaCityUK and has a lift of 18 metres, allowing large watercraft to pass beneath. The bridge features prominently on the backdrop for the BBC North West Tonight television news programme, which also shows The Lowry and MediaCityUK. DesignDesigned by Carlos Fernandez Casado, the bridge has a main span of 91. 2 metres in a Lohse Arch, with the peaks of the twin arches connected at the crown. These brace one another, resulting in greater structural rigidity. The deck is connected to the arches with vertical members, which splay outwards at an increasing angle towards the centre of the span. The sweeping arches are decorated with coloured Philips Color Kinetics LED lighting, while the deck is illuminated with white downlighting. Pedestrians are protected from the prevailing winds by glass sides, coloured blue at foot level and tapering in, following the angle of the arches. The lifting design utilises four white tubular steel space truss towers with concrete counterweights mounted internally on red carriers, although early plans envisioned spherical counterweights. These are suspended by cable over large grey wheels, mounted above decorative triangular maintenance platforms. The counterbalancing system allows the bridge to complete a raising or lowering through its 18-metre lift in less than three minutes. The outermost truss sections of each tower curve away from the main bridge at the base, tapering to a point, and each tower is topped with two decorative blue lights. The four towers have uplighting from the maintenance platform, although this feature has not been operational for some time.

The Salford Quays lift bridge or Salford Quays Millennium footbridge is a 91. 2-metre long vertical lift bridge spanning the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The bridge, which was completed in 2000, is near the terminus of the ship canal at the old Manchester Docks. It links Salford Quays to MediaCityUK and has a lift of 18 metres, allowing large watercraft to pass beneath. The bridge features prominently on the backdrop for the BBC North West Tonight television news programme, which also shows The Lowry and MediaCityUK. DesignDesigned by Carlos Fernandez Casado, the bridge has a main span of 91. 2 metres in a Lohse Arch, with the peaks of the twin arches connected at the crown. These brace one another, resulting in greater structural rigidity. The deck is connected to the arches with vertical members, which splay outwards at an increasing angle towards the centre of the span. The sweeping arches are decorated with coloured Philips Color Kinetics LED lighting, while the deck is illuminated with white downlighting. Pedestrians are protected from the prevailing winds by glass sides, coloured blue at foot level and tapering in, following the angle of the arches. The lifting design utilises four white tubular steel space truss towers with concrete counterweights mounted internally on red carriers, although early plans envisioned spherical counterweights. These are suspended by cable over large grey wheels, mounted above decorative triangular maintenance platforms. The counterbalancing system allows the bridge to complete a raising or lowering through its 18-metre lift in less than three minutes. The outermost truss sections of each tower curve away from the main bridge at the base, tapering to a point, and each tower is topped with two decorative blue lights. The four towers have uplighting from the maintenance platform, although this feature has not been operational for some time.