Teesquay Millennium Footbridge | |
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![]() Teesquay Millennium Footbridge | |
Coordinates | 54°33′44.5″N 1°18′35.2″W / 54.562361°N 1.309778°W |
Carries | Pedestrians |
Crosses |
Teesdale Way, River Tees, Riverside Road |
Locale | Stockton-on-Tees, England |
Official name | Teesquay Millennium Footbridge |
Preceded by | Victoria Bridge |
Followed by | Princess of Wales Bridge |
Characteristics | |
Design | Cable-stayed bridge |
Material | Steel and concrete |
Width | 2.7 metres (9 ft) |
No. of spans | 4 |
Piers in water | 1 |
History | |
Architect | Yee Associates |
Designer | Ove Arup |
Constructed by | Birse Construction |
Construction end | December 2000 |
Inaugurated | 20 December 2000 |
Location | |
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Teesquay Millennium Footbridge is a footbridge crossing east-west over the River Tees between Stockton high street and Thornaby ( Teesdale Business Park) in Northern England. It is just east of Stockton town centre and in the town's namesake borough. [1] [2] [3]
The bridge crosses the Teesdale Way cycle route, River Tees, and the A1035 Riverside Road. Funding for the bridge was from Stockton-on-Tees Council, the European Regional Development Fund, One NorthEast, and English Partnerships. [2]
Teesquay Millennium Footbridge is also referred to as the Millennium Bridge.
Stockton Borough Council provided a brief for a 'design and build' competition to construct a pedestrian bridge across the River Tees. [4] The 'design and build' competition was won by a team comprising Ove Arup and Birse Construction. [4] Their entry was the only one to satisfy the local council's strictly limited budget. [4]
The bridge has a cable-stayed design [1] [5] with architecture by Yee Associates [5] and designed by Ove Arup [1] whereas the identification signage on the bridge states that it was designed by the constructor, Birse Construction. It has a 40-metre (131 ft) 'A' frame pylon/mast with fanned cables [1] [2] [3] [6] and has a total span of 153 m (502 ft). [7] The walkway is 2.7 m (9 ft) wide narrowing to 2 m (7 ft) on the extension over Riverside Road to the Castlegate Centre. [8]
The bridge was fabricated in Spain, [9] constructed on site by Birse Construction North East [1] [2] [5] [6] and completed in December 2000 [1] [5] at a cost of £1.4m. [6]
The bridge was opened on 20 December 2000 [1] [9] [10] by Dari Taylor, Member of Parliament for Stockton South, and the mayor of Stockton-on-Tees. [9] The Teesgate Millennium Footbridge was one of the few number of millennium footbridges to be actually completed in the millennium year, but unlike some high-profile millennium footbridges it was not funded by the Millennium Commission. [4]
The bridge has been criticised for both wobbling [11] [12] and being too narrow to accommodate cyclists who are required to dismount and are barred from entering the Castlegate Centre in any case.
Up-river on Castlegate Quay by the western side of the bridge there is the Castlegate Quay Watersports Centre.