Soho Loop

The new Soho Wharf Development has brought 750 new canal side homes to Birmingham city. As part of planning conditions the developer needed to deliver a footbridge to connect the development with the tow path to the Old Main Line Canal.

Finding a form that could span the canal without bearing onto the wall of the canal presented the greatest constraint to the design. The existing concrete canal wall also presented a constraint and an opportunity.

DYSE delivered the concept right from earliest of stages. DYSE developed a cantilever truss footbridge that provides access to the tow path from the development via a new connection through the parapet of the Eyre Street Basin arch bridge at the apex. The idea for the truss was for the profile to accentuate the cantilever whilst remaining stiff and lightweight. The solution allowed the re-purposing of the existing canal wall and the Eyre Street Basin bridge. The bridge was delivered as a single piece to site thought a busy construction site.

DYSE helped the client deal with the risk associated with achieving the correct levels at the tip of the cantilever though a series of strategies and mitigations communicated with 3D construction sequences, levelling technical notes and on site guidance.

The temporary works were designed by DYSE in tandem with the bridge design. DYSE’s concept was to load the bridge with temporary precast concrete vehicle collision barriers in a Jenga arrangement to the rear to form a temporary counterweight prior to final levelling.

The project won “Project Constructed Outside of the North West Region” at the IStructE Lancashire and Cheshire Regional Group’s North West Structural Awards.