Teesquay Millennium Footbridge is a footbridge crossing east-west over the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has bee ...

between

Stockton Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand *Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chirbu ...

high street and

Thornaby Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and civil parish on the River Tees's southern bank. It is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. The parish had a population of 24,741 at the 2011 census, in t ...

(

Teesdale Business Park Teesdale Business Park is a major business park on the former site of Head Wrightsons' Teesdale works in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. The park was redeveloped by the Teesside Development Corporation. The area is immediately no ...

) in Northern England. It is just east of Stockton town centre and in the town's namesake borough. The bridge crosses the

Teesdale Way The Teesdale Way is a long-distance walk between the Cumbrian Pennines and the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire in England. The walk is in length; it links in with other long-distance walks such as the Pennine Way and the E2 European Walk b ...

cycle route,

and the A1035 Riverside Road. Funding for the bridge was from Stockton-on-Tees Council, the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...

One NorthEast One North East was the regional development agency for the North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative ...

and

English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successo ...

. Teesquay Millennium Footbridge is also referred to as the Millennium Bridge.

Design

Stockton Borough Council provided a brief for a 'design and build' competition to construct a pedestrian bridge across the River Tees. The 'design and build' competition was won by a team comprising

Ove Arup Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE, FCIOB (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation that offers engineering, design, planning, project management, and ...

and

Birse Construction Birse ( gd, Braois/Breis) is a parish in the Lower Deeside area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which includes the communities of Finzean and Ballogie. However the name Birse is often used to refer only to the northwestern part of the parish which ...

. Their entry was the only one to satisfy the local council's strictly limited budget. The bridge has a

cable-stayed A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...

design with architecture by

Yee Associates * Yu (Chinese surname) ( Chinese: 余) * Yee (surname) ( simp. 叶, trad. 葉) -- variants Yee, Yeh, Yip/Ip, Yap, Yapp Notable people with surname Yee (余) Persons with surname "Yee"(余) include: * Charmaine Yee (born 1987), Singaporean emc ...

and designed by

whereas the identification signage on the bridge states that it was designed by the constructor, Birse Construction. It has a 'A' frame pylon/mast with fanned cables and has a total span of . The walkway is wide narrowing to on the extension over Riverside Road to the Castlegate Centre.

Construction

The bridge was fabricated in Spain, constructed on site by Birse Construction North East and completed in December 2000 at a cost of £1.4m.

Operation

The bridge was opened on 20 December 2000 by

Dari Taylor Dari Jean Taylor (''née'' Jones; born 13 December 1944) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton South between the 1997 and 2010 general elections. Biography Taylor was born into a staunch Labo ...

, Member of Parliament for Stockton South, and the mayor of Stockton-on-Tees. The Teesgate Millennium Footbridge was one of the few number of millennium footbridges to be actually completed in the millennium year, but unlike some high-profile millennium footbridges it was not funded by the

Millennium Commission The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebra ...

. The bridge has been criticised for both wobbling and being too narrow to accommodate cyclists who are required to dismount and are barred from entering the Castlegate Centre in any case.

Castlegate Quay

Up-river on Castlegate Quay by the western side of the bridge there is the Castlegate Quay Watersports Centre.

Photo gallery

References

Stockton on Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimated ...

town centre , Centre = Teesquay Millennium Footbridge
over the ''

''. , East =

Thornaby-on-Tees , Southwest = , South = , Southeast = Victoria Bridge {{Crossings navbox , structure =

Crossings Crossings may refer to: * ''Crossings'' (Buffy novel), a 2002 original novel based on the U.S. television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' * Crossings (game), a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott * ''Crossings'' ...

, place =

, bridge = Teesquay Millennium Footbridge , upstream = Victoria Bridge , downstream = Princess of Wales Bridge
(Princess) Diana Bridge {{Stockton Pedestrian bridges in England Crossings of the River Tees Bridges completed in 2000 Bridges in County Durham Bridges in North Yorkshire Buildings and structures in Stockton-on-Tees Cable-stayed bridges in England Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium 2000 establishments in England