This slender new concrete footbridge across the picturesque River Severn in rural Shropshire is over 85 metres long and due to the limited access, presented a number of challenging engineering and logistical problems. The comprehensive project involved three separate hydraulic movement disciplines. Throughout, Bill Boley Ltd worked closely with main contractor Carillion, project consultants Arup and support structure experts RMDK. The centre section of the new foot bridge, weighing almost 100 tonnes and 28 metres long was cast on the river bank and then lifted into place with a 1000 tonne crane. Prior to lifting, Bill Boley weighed the the complete section by lifting it slightly off the curved former to check actual weight versus theoretical.

For the lifting process it was essential that the correct tensions were applied to the six lifting ropes to ensure an equal force was applied through each and that the section lifted in a perfectly level plane. Any discrepancies could have caused damage to the structure and also made it difficult to locate between the two spans. Six special hydraulic cylinders (one at each lifting point) were used in combination with linear displacement transducers (LVDTs) to detect when the bridge started to move off its support frame. Once the correct tensions had been applied, the bridge section was lifted and lowered carefully into place.

Before connection with the two ends of the bridge, the center section has a natural sag of around 130 mm and therefore four strand jacks on special gantries either side of the bridge have been used to pre-tension the section prior to final stitching and concrete infill. The cables were connected to stanchions in the centre of the bridge and during the tensioning a vertical force of 470kN was applied at the centre of the bridge section which lifted it over 100 mm. The strand jacks and steel cables remained in place for almost two months whilst the concrete infill and bridge deck were poured and allowed to cure. They were finally removed in August 2006.