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Bascule bridge wins award
Heritage prize months after rusty old heap gets new life span
THE bascule bridge on Regent Road won a restoration award last month, its owners announced today.
The 78-year-old bridge, or, according to Peel Holdings which owns it, “The Peel Bascule Bridge”, won a prize at the the Historic Bridges & Infrastructure Awards held on March 31.
The bridge, which spans the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Stanley Dock, was closed for inspection and repair in May 2008 and subsequently condemned due to natural corrosion. Peel and Liverpool Council’s Heritage and Highways departments worked to find a solution to safeguard this landmark - which sits on an important north-south link on the city's bounciest of shock-absorber-testing roads.
The bridge is the only surviving example of a rolling bascule lifting bridge in Liverpool and is an integral feature of the Stanley Dock Conservation Area and the World Heritage designation.
In addition to repairs and replacement of parts of the steel structure, the timber engine house on top of the bridge has been given a new natural slate roof and aluminium rainwater pipes making it a key feature of the overall design. The motorised equipment has been retained inside the engine room and the bridge has been painted in its original colours.
The bridge was officially re-opened to the public on 25th August 2010 by Liverpool City Council Leader Joe Anderson.
Ian Pollitt, development investment surveyor at Peel, said, “We are
delighted to have won this award. We have worked extremely hard to ensure the restoration works were in fitting with the heritage of the bridge and are delighted that this has been recognised.”
The Historic Bridge and Infrastructure Awards is like the Oscars, but for bridges.
Set up by County Surveyors Society, English Heritage and The Institution of Civil Engineers Panel for Historical Engineering Works to “recognise and encourage excellence and innovation in conservation”. Or, as they might say when the env
Nominations were invited for projects involving bridges, aqueducts, tunnels, and other transport-related structures such as retaining walls, locks, wharves and large station roofs, but excluding buildings. That's a whole world of serious stuff.
Or, as they might say when the winners' envelope is about to be torn open: "The suspension is killing us".
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Congratulations to Peel Holdings for winning this award.
Now, when are they *actually* going to break the ground on some of these grandiose development projects that will generate thousands of jobs they've been promising for years?
The press and politicians are wetting themselves with anticipation of these developments that will - we are told - resemble New York and Shanghai; but has a single spadeful of earth been moved yet?
What about the three-and-a-half star hotel in the Victorian hydraulic tower in the planned 'Wirral Waters' scheme that the local press reported as definitely happening three or four years ago?
Has there been any progress so far?
That Peel Holdings recieved approval to build a restaurant in the hydraulic tower was reported in The Estates Gazette of 17.5.2008, Issue 819, p41-41. That was over five years ago. How many more years do we have to wait?
Forever? www.bbc.co.uk/…/uk-politics-24512532…
I must say that the puns in this article are very arch. Humpback or not the author ought to be elevated to a pier of the realm like the clappers. Were piles required?
It is to Peel Holdings credit that they restored it. They could have tried to get rid of it quoting "corroded beyond possible repair" or some other excuse.
If it's good enough for them to own it, it's good enough for them to maintain properly.