Warburton High Level Bridge Refurbishment

Peel Ports owns and operates six of the UK’s most important ports (Port of Liverpool, Heysham Port, Manchester Ship Canal, Medway (Sheerness / Chatham), Clydeport (Greenock, Hunterston, Ardrossan) and Great Yarmouth). It also operates a container terminal in Dublin.

In support of its ongoing operations, The Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited is engaging in market research with a view to launching a regulated procurement competitive tender process at a later date for the award of a bridge refurbishment design and build contract for the Warburton High Level Bridge.

The aim of this periodic indicative notice is to give advance notice of the upcoming procurement prior to the release of the contract notice which is due in October 2023. Contractors are invited to provide early expressions of interest in relation to this opportunity.

It is proposed that the scope shall be for the Contractor to undertake major works to improve the traffic flow along Warburton Road and life extending / strengthening works to the high level cantilever bridge including:

• To refurbish and strengthen the high level cantilever bridge to sustainably extend the life of the structure and raise the weight limit to 7.5T mgw with exceptions for emergency vehicles and small buses.
• Asset protection works to alleviate the risk of structural fatigue failures, major impact damage, and contributing to accelerated wear of the road surface as below:
• Steelwork repairs/replacement and replacement of steelwork protective system.
• Replacement of expansion joints to prevent water ingress to deck.
• Replacement of timber deck footways with steel plate deck to accommodate accidental wheel loading.
• Refurbishment of the abutments and wing walls, including masonry stitching, rake out and repointing, cleaning of abutment shelves, installation of weep pipes and removal of a 300mm diameter tree.
• Refurbishment of the piers, including replacement of missing brickwork, rake out and repointing and repainting of the pier steelwork.
• Patch repair to carriageway where there is a minor breakup of surfacing course.
• To install a new automated tolling system to improve the flow of traffic in the area.
• Resurfacing and traffic calming measures to accommodate 10,000 vehicles per day.