A major milestone has been reached on the £85 million Ordsall Chord project in Manchester.

The two arches, which weigh 600 tonnes and form the centrepiece of the development, have been successfully lifted into place to form a new bridge

The works mark the completion of a major phase on the Great North Rail Project, part of Network Rail's £40 billion Railway Upgrade Plan.

Once complete in December, the 300-metre Ordsall Chord will link all three of Manchester's main stations - Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria for the first time.

The overall project is being delivered by the Northern Hub Alliance, consisting of; Network Rail, Siemens, Amey Sersa JV, Skanska BAM JV, AECOM Mott MacDonald JV and Severfield.

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Peter Jenkins, BDP Transport Architect Director and project lead architect, said: "The BDP team has designed with the engineers from WSP, Aecom and Mott MacDonald an 89-metre single-span network arch bridge to carry twin heavy-rail tracks.

"I still have my original sketch of the bridge concept from when BDP started work on this exciting and challenging project over five years ago. It is therefore hugely satisfying to reach the dramatic moment of the bridge arches being lifted into place over the river."

Project Manager for Severfield, Jarrod Hulme, said: "Today, after months of detailed design planning workshops, we successfully completed the tandem lift of the network arches onto the bridge deck, over the River Irwell.

"Over the last few weeks the Severfield team have been working incredibly hard to get everything in place for today's tandem lift and we are delighted with today's achievement on this fabulous project."

Rail Minister Paul Maynard said: "The Ordsall Chord is a key part of the government's £1bn-plus investment in upgrading the rail infrastructure across the North of England.

"These improvements are at the heart of our plans for the Northern Powerhouse. This is a demonstration of our commitment to deliver change that passengers want, such as increasing direct links between Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and other cities, providing more room and faster, more frequent services by 2020."

(LM/MH)