Mersey Gateway
Cost: £650 million.
The Halton Council website shows bridge camera images (1 frame every 30 seconds) from both North and South bound cameras.
Before you click on the link below that will take you to Halton Council's website. Just be aware of some data privacy issues first. Halton Council:
- Will gather your device's geo-location and other device data under GDPR's 'legitimate interest' clause for detecting fraud and advertising such as deterministically determining that two devices used on your WiFi are in the same household;
- Provides a rather confusing privacy policy and consent functionality (that is hidden after your first vist)
- Will share your data with their partners and allow their partners to store tracking cookies on your device without first seeking your positive affirmation; and
- Will report their webcam page as a warning in your browser i.e no padlock. This is due to the council using insecure http content on a secure https website which degrades the overall security.
The Mersey Gateway
The Mersey Gateway bridge is a bridge between Runcorn and Widnes in Cheshire, England which spans the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal. It was built in 2014 and opened just after midnight on 14th October 2017.
The crossing which opened in october 2017, has three traffic lanes in each direction is approximately 1.5km east of the older Silver Jubilee Bridge. Over 70,000 vehicles cross the Mersey Gateway each day. That's 20,000 less vehicles than were crossing the smaller Jubilee bridge when it closed in 2017.
It is a cable-stayed bridge designed by Knight Architects and constructed by Merseylink CCJV – Kier Infrastructure and Overseas FCC Construccion Samsung C&T ECUK Consortium at a cost of £650 Million. It has 3 towers, the highest being 80m (260ft) in the middle with the north side pylon reaching 110m (360ft) and the South side pylon reaching 125m (410ft). The bridge is 2.3KM (1.4 miles) long.
A 28.5 ha (70-acre) nature reserve was established around the bridge and the surrounding riverside, managed by the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust, an independent charity tasked with promoting biodiversity, landscape, science, and educational opportunities.
Did you know?
Over 70,000 vehicles cross the Mersey Gateway each day. Strangely, that's 20,000 less vehicles than were crossing the smaller Jubilee bridge when it closed in 2017!
The bridge takes its toll on drivers
The Mersey Gateway is a toll bridge. Once drivers are on the bridge the car registration is captured by several video cameras to be sure of a clear image and recognition against the licensed DVLA database and drivers have until midnight the following day to pay via the Merseyflow website or by phone 01928 878 878 (available 8am-8pm Monday-Friday and 9am-6pm Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays).
The toll is £2.00 for cars and small vehicles (£1.80 for those who have registered) and up to £8 for HGV's. If you fail to pay an incurred toll by midnight of the following day, you will automaticallu incur a penalty notice of £40.00. This penalty is halved if you pay it within 14 days from the date of receiving the penalty notice which can take up to a week from the day you failed to pay. Removing operational costs, its likely to be another 17 years before the cost of the bridge is paid for. But they're hoping people will have forgotten by then, as who have ever heard of any toll bridge stopping removing a crossign charge when the bridge or tunnel has been paid for twice over? Who?
When we're all in our electric, lithium, rechargeable cars stopping the taxman from getting his massive tax revenue from the fuel pumps, we'll see they will start charging 20p for every kilometre of road used by cars to keep the revenue coming in. It will be based on weight of vehicle on the road - bike, car or lorry.
Everything is fine!
The Merseyflow customer dashboard has issued over 1 million penalty charge notices (1 millionth issued in December 2018) generating over £10million in revenue. Baliffs have visited the homes of over 1,366 drivers (that's 1 in every 770 people who receive a fine). In the the first quarter of 2019 there were no less than 191,000 fines issued to drivers and April to June saw that figure increase by 50,000 to a whopping 293,000 fines per quarter!
The Merseyflow gateway still continues to confuse many visitors who cross the bridge wondering where the toll booths are. The big display signs suggesting drivers pay online and if you are not a blue badge holder, it can often be easily forgotten before midnight the following day, resulting in the penalty notices being issued.
It undoubteldy makes local residents think twice about 'popping over to Widnes' with many M6 drivers travelling via the Thewall viaduct, northbound rather than crossing the bridge. Its not necessarily the toll that puts off drivers who don't use it regularly, but the risk of forgetting to pay.
The old bridge is still holding together
The old runcorn bridge is open. It's had some rust treatment and a paint job and is good enough to charge drivers to driver over now.
Good old Automatic Personal Number Plate (APNR) is installed on the approach road rated IP66 with extra sheilding from starling droppings that fly over the 87 metre-high bridge at twighlight.
The original "Silver Jubilee" bridge opened in 1961. It was designed to carry 9,000 vehicles a day and had reached over 90,000 before it was closed.