July 2010
The new Trap Makers bridge was a regeneration project part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The project was overseen by Wolverhampton City Council’s culture and leisure services and British Waterways and designed by Halcrow.
The design has a modern element but also reflected victorian engineering in keeping with the name and spirit of the project. This is evident in the name of the bridge which was chosen by the town council. Wednesfield is famous for making traps and home too many trap making workshops and the town was keen to recognise this heritage.
The bridge formed part of a regeneration project; the link between the town centre and the park. This was critical for opening up the area for redevelopment and also takes pedestrian traffic away from a narrow and dangerous road bridge.
The six-span steel bridge is S-curved in plan. This was chosen due to the compact nature of the site and the need to provide disability and cycle access from the town centre to the park. There is a level difference between the park side and town side and the S shape was used to fit in a long ramp to make up the difference. To facilitate the S shape, a spine beam deck was used which also created a lot of visual interest for people walking adjacent to and under the deck. Aesthetic consideration had to be given to both the top side which would be seen by the bridge and park users, hence the interesting parapets, and from under the bridge which would be seen by the towpath users.
To minimise disruption to canal users, walkers and people using the park, the bridge was designed so that it could be entirely fabricated off site and erected in a number of manageable pieces. In the detailing, simple bolted connections were used to ensure that on-site welding was not required and tension control bolts were specified rather than normal bolts as they look more like old fashioned rivets, in keeping with the heritage of the canals.