The Mersey Gateway, or why I live in Greater Manchester

We've been having some wonderfully fine autumn weather for the past week or so; so nice, in fact, that one day last week I left the plant to take a walk at lunch.  The plant is located in an industrial estate, and there are no sidewalks or walking paths around our building, but about 1 1/2 miles down the road is the Wigg Island Community Park, so I drove down there.

Wigg Island was created with the building of the Runcorn to Latchford Canal (1804), which left a chunk of land in between the canal and the River Mersey.  The island came to be used for manufacturing, and it was a centre for the production of mustard gas during WWII.  After manufacturing ceased in the 1960s, the contaminated brownfield was cleaned up, remediated and converted into a nature preserve and community park.

Here is a lovely view of the Runcorn Gap and the Silver Jubilee Bridge, taken while standing on Wigg Island.  Downstream to the west from here are where the Mersey estuary drains into the Irish Sea and the city of Liverpool.  The Runcorn Gap is the first big bend in the river with a very narrow gap between what today are Runcorn on the south bank (left side of photo) and Widnes on the north bank (right side).  The Gap has always been a major crossing, and the current Silver Jubilee Bridge has been in place in its current configuration since 1977.

Runcorn is roughly halfway in between Liverpool and Manchester, so I could have lived in either metropolitan area and had an acceptable commute to the plant.  Actually, the commute from Liverpool would have been a little shorter.  I love Liverpool -- it's a really cool city, with amazing history, architecture, arts and culture, etc.  The World Heritage waterfront is incredible.  I think I would have been just as happy there with all the pubs, live music and transport link options.  Also, the rents are less expensive in Liverpool.  Comparable houses in comparable areas would have been £100 to £200 less each month in rent.

The Silver Jubliee Bridge is why I chose to live in Greater Manchester instead.  This four lane, 38 year old bridge -- and the traffic around it -- is a nightmare, and today it is the only way to commute from Liverpool to Runcorn.  Over 80,000 vehicles use the Silver Jubilee Bridge every weekday, only 2 lanes for each direction, and you're going through the communities of Runcorn and Widnes, so cars are changing lanes constantly as they enter and exit the queues of traffic.

The bridge is such a nightmare that they are building a new bridge to supplement it, the Mersey Gateway.  The Gateway will have three lanes in each direction, and the route will bypass the town centres of Runcorn and Widnes.  When it is finished, it will actually have a large viaduct going right over and through the Astmoor Industrial Estate where the plant I work at is located.  All great and very much needed.  This is the Mersey Gateway on Tuesday, September 29, 2015:

As you can see, they have a long way to go.  The three cranes are where they are building the three cable-stayed towers.  That's Fiddlers Ferry coal-fired power station in the background.

Construction started in the spring of 2014, and if the Silver Jubilee Bridge situation was bad enough, having everything in the area torn up and under construction for the new bridge is even worse.  There are all types of lane and road closures, diversions, orange barrels everywhere.  The closures aren't at night or over a weekend.  These are major works, and closures are lasting for a month at a time or even longer.  It will be a traffic nightmare at least until the autumn of 2017, at the earliest.  Autumn 2017 assumes everything goes according to plan.

Once the new bridge opens, both bridges will become tolled, costing a standard rate of £2 to cross, £1.80 if you register and get a sticker or £90 for a monthly unlimited travel pass.  Don't get me wrong -- I am very much in favor of toll roads.  I think people who use the roads should pay for them, and they should pay for them based on actual usage.  However, for myself personally, even after the 3+ years of traffic nightmares are over, that £90 toll per month pretty firmly eliminates any possibility that I might want to switch my living over to Liverpool.  Sorry, Greater Manchester; that means you are stuck with me.  I just renewed my lease on my house, which was expiring on December 2, so Altrincham is stuck with me, too.  For another year at least.  :-)

A few other photos from my lunchtime walk:

The Old Quay swing bridge that connects the mainland to Wigg Island over the canal.  It didn't look like it had swung open in a very long time.

Originally, the Runcorn to Latchford Canal (also known as the Old Quay Canal or locally as "Old Quay Cut"), which was excavated out and incorporated into the later Manchester Ship Canal.  Remnants of old docks remain.

It's Rose Hips season!  Rose trees and bushes are currently covered with their bright red fruits.