English Heritage blasts ‘exceptionally damaging’ rail project

A £133m rail project in Manchester, to be built by Skanska, Bam Nuttall and Balfour Beatty, will cause “substantial harm” to “one of the most significant railway sites in the world”, English Heritage has warned.

The Orsdall Chord scheme is part of Network Rail’s £677m investment programme in the region and is aimed at improving connections between Manchester and Salford and freeing up rail capacity.

A team comprising Skanska, Bam Nuttall, Balfour Beatty and Siemens was appointed to build the £133m scheme last year.

But the project has proved controversial because it will affect around 30 heritage sites including three grade I-listed structures, such as the George Stephenson’s bridge.

Network Rail submitted an application to the Department for Transport for a Transport and Works Act Order – a form of planning permission for such schemes – last September and a public inquiry started last week.

At the inquiry, English Heritage said the scheme would be a “brutal insertion of modern engineering which cuts into the fabric and across the grain of highly sensitive historic railway assets”.

Andrew Davidson, principal inspector of ancient monuments in English Heritage’s North West office, said that in his 27 years at English Heritage he had “never come across a proposal so exceptionally damaging to the historic environment as the Orsdall Chord”.

English Heritage also argued that Network Rail had not properly considered an alternative routing for the line, known as Option 15, which all parties accept would cause less harm to historic structures.

It said heritage concerns had “not been an integral feature of an iterative route selection process”.

But Network Rail said the scheme was merely “the next stage in the history of rail investment and development in Manchester” and consideration of the impact on old structures had been “central to the design development process”.

It also said that the Option 15 scheme would “destroy the regeneration potential” of the nearby Middlewood Lock site, “produce sub-optimal rail operation”; and would be 55% “more expensive to construct”.

The findings of the public inquiry will be reported to the transport secretary who will rule on whether to give the scheme permission in the autumn.