A Skanska-BAM Nuttall joint venture was appointed as an alliance partner and awarded a contract to deliver the Ordsall Chord project. The project was part of Network Rail’s £1bn+ rail upgrade plan for the North of England.

Boosting economic growth in the North of England

The project was intended to increase connectivity across towns and cities and enable the government’s Northern Powerhouse initiative to boost economic growth in the North of the country.

This project included construction of key structures in Manchester city centre to help ease a rail bottleneck north of Piccadilly station and enable faster, more frequent services to run across the North of England.

It was part of the Northern Hub project to improve railway services across Northern England.

Collaborative experience

This scheme began with an early contractor involvement phase. During the delivery stage, contractors drew on the collective experience of the partnership and used building information modelling technology for whole-life costing and carbon foot-printing.

The key project features:

• The Ordsall Chord has linked Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly stations and improved links within the city and the North of England.

• New, direct links were created to Manchester Airport, making it more accessible to people across the region.

• As part of Network Rail’s wider upgrade plan, the Chord has helped reduce congestion on the railway at Manchester Piccadilly and create extra capacity for more trains to run.

• The viaduct carries the railway across the River Irwell and the Trinity Way dual carriageway linking Manchester City Centre and Salford.