Salford Meadows Bridge could still happen more than a decade on

A long-awaited Meadows Bridge could be built as part of Salford Crescent’s ambitious 20-year regeneration project.

In 2013 there was a confirmed plan to build a bridge that would have connected Crescent Road to The Meadows, going directly over the Salford Meadows.

The bridge would then have cost £2 million, with Salford City Council running a competition to find the best design. The winner was architect Tonkin Liu, who also designed the Tower Of Light next to Manchester Central.

The design was modern but sensible, and would have spearheaded the development we now see down Chapel Street and the Crescent but nothing came of it.

So what happened?

Daniel Welsh, principal project manager for the Crescent’s regeneration project, said: “For a variety of reasons following the bridge design competition, with funding being a key challenge, we were not able to take forward Meadow Bridge to the timescales originally anticipated.

“The bridge connection to the meadow remains a future ambition in the Crescent Development Framework, but there are also now more ambitious plans to significantly improve access down to the river from the A6 highway.”

Following a partnership between the council, The University of Salford and the regeneration company English Cities Fund in 2020, the Crescent Development Framework project was approved in 2021.

The project sets out the vision and objectives for the six ‘development zones’ which make up the wider Crescent area.

Fadi Shayya, an expert on architecture at the University of Salford, says the bridge will make The Meadows much more accessible to Salford residents.

“Everybody will benefit from it because the spaces are open to everyone.

“So the whole idea is that you would have two big pylons or one big arch that spans the whole distance from one side of the road to the other side of The Meadows. It will integrate seamlessly.

“Right now you have a new neighbourhood upcoming here. So that’s why this connection is important, because otherwise, that Meadows big public space will be underused, and therefore undervalued.”

The bridge is still a possibility, given the Crescent area development, however whether or not we will see the Tonkin Liu design is still unknown. No plans have yet been submitted to Salford City Council.

To find out more about the Crescent’s long-term regeneration project, click here.