The county council’s Pooley Bridge Replacement Project has been honoured with two further awards by the North West Regional Construction Association (NWRCA).
The new awards add to the national recognition achieved in May 2021 when the project was named the best civil engineering project (over £5m) in the North West by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association.
The NWRCA awards were won in the following categories:
Representatives from the project team, which included Eric Wright Group and Mott MacDonald, attended the awards ceremony in Liverpool on Friday 19 November.
Described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the county council’s Infrastructure Recovery Programme, the new Pooley Bridge was completed during a challenging time amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, and was formally re-opened to vehicles and pedestrians in October 2020.
The original bridge, which was built in 1764, was one of more than 450 bridges in the county to be damaged or destroyed by Storm Desmond in December 2015. The elegant new bridge, measuring 128ft long is the UK’s first stainless steel single span bridge, and was been designed and delivered to complement the stunning surroundings of the Lake District National Park. The bridge was designed as a single span structure to avoid the need for piers in the river, thereby reducing the flood risk and making the structure more flood resilient.
In total, around 80 tonnes of stainless steel was used, with 2,000 tonnes of concrete laid and 650 square metres of locally sourced stone. Some 250 people were involved in delivering the project, taking approximately 10,000 working hours to construct.
Cllr Keith Little, Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, said:
“I’m absolutely delighted that the new Pooley Bridge has been recognised with yet more well-deserved national and regional awards. The council and our partners worked hard to repair the widespread damage to our highways and structures following Storm Desmond and the new Pooley Bridge was one of the last major projects to be completed.
“I’d like to thank all our contractors for creating a fantastic new structure, and I’d also like to thank the local community in Pooley Bridge who worked with us through the design stages and throughout the construction. The awards are testament to the skills and innovation of all involved, and the iconic new bridge is something we can all be very proud of and will attract many more visitors in the years to come.”
Diane Bourne, managing director of Eric Wright Civil Engineering said:
“We are so proud that Pooley Bridge has been recognised again by the judges to win two further awards from our peers in the North West Regional Contractors Association. Replacing a much-loved historic structure is never without its challenges and we consulted closely with the local community every step of the way to ensure what we delivered would be a fitting replacement for generations to come. The village embraced the project and we are so grateful for all of their support. The new bridge connects people once again and is future-proofed for flood resilience which will bring peace of mind to the local community.”
The project team included: Eric Wright Civil Engineering, GHD, Mott MacDonald, WEC Group, R Betts, Sarens, Eden Stonework, PBA Ecology, Waitings, Bill Boley, Knight Architects and Cumbria County Council.