Work starts on ‘revolutionary’ bridge at Stowmarket rail station
A £5.5 million project to install a new ‘revolutionary’ bridge at a town’s rail station has begun.
Stowmarket rail station is the first in the country to receive the new AVA bridge which includes two lifts to improve accessibility for passengers.
Greater Anglia received funding for accessibility improvements at the station under the Government’s ‘Access for All’ scheme as the only step-free way to cross the platforms was via the level crossing.
Marek Dowejko, Greater Anglia’s asset programme manager, said: “Thanks to this revolutionary new style of bridge the scheme was affordable, and we have been able to use the Access for All funding efficiently and to the best outcome for passengers.
“We want everyone to be able to have a good journey with us and the plans for Stowmarket are going to make a big difference to people using the station.”
The existing bridge will be removed over the weekend of January 11, 2025 and a temporary footbridge will be installed so the station can remain open during the engineering works.
The modular design and ‘plug-and-play’ lifts are designed to cut the installation time needed on site by over half — however, the number of parking spaces in the station’s car park will be reduced as some of it will be used by the project team.
It is anticipated that the new stainless steel bridge will be installed at the end of May 2025 and then open to the public by summer 2025.
After originally being announced in June 2022, the works were delayed from its original start date for the end of 2023 — however, the reason behind the delay is unclear.
Anthony Dewar, Network Rail’s head of buildings and architecture, said: “We want to give passengers better journeys and provide a railway that’s better value for money, and to do that we need fresh designs like this.
“We want a bridge that is open and light so passengers feel secure, a bridge that looks modern, that makes people feel they’re travelling on a modern railway, we want lifts to be more reliable, and our colleagues want a bridge that’s easy to maintain, that can be installed more quickly and less disruptively… and also doesn’t need painting every 25 years. That’s why we have AVA.”
