It’s offical: the railway footbridge revolution has begun. Greater Anglia has become the first customer to order one of the modular Ava footbridges, which will replace the old concrete pedestrian crossing at Stowmarket station in Suffolk.
The Ava footbridge was developed by a consortium including Expedition Engineering, Walker Construction, X-Treme Systems and Hawkins/Brown. The £5.4M initiative was funded by Innovate UK and Network Rail and, being cheaper and quicker to construct, it has the potential to disrupt the way rail infrastructure is delivered.
Rather than being built in a steel fabrication yard from standard sections, then shipped elsewhere to be painted before being transported to site as a full span length, the Ava bridge is designed to be assembled in 1.2m long modules using structural elements cut from flat sheets of stainless steel and bolted together.
The truss modules can be configured to suit the destination site, taking up as little land as is feasible. It’s fitted out with cladding, canopy, lighting and other mechanical and electrical services before being erected as close to finished as possible.
A demonstrator bridge is under construction at Widmerpool in Nottinghamshire but, even without having seen it, Greater Anglia was keen to get involved with the project and be the first to purchase one for use on the UK’s railway.