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 be ...

between Stockton high street and Thornaby (

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 nor ...

) 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 European walking ro ...

cycle route,

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

One NorthEast One North East was the regional development agency for the North East England region. History It was established in April 1999. The North East received government aid for regeneration. In June 2010, it was announced that One North East was t ...

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 successor ...

. 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 and Birse Construction. Their entry was the only one to satisfy the local council's strictly limited budget. The bridge has a cable-stayed design with architecture by Yee Associates and designed by Ove Arup 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 Lab ...

, Member of Parliament for

Stockton South Stockton South is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since December 2019 by Matt Vickers, a Conservative MP. Boundaries 1983–1997: The Borough of Stockton-on-Tees wards of Bishopsgarth, Egglescliffe, Fai ...

, 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

Princess of Wales Bridge The Princess of Wales Bridge, sometimes referred to as the Diana Bridge or the Princess Diana Bridge, is a dual carriageway road bridge named after the late Diana, Princess of Wales. It carries Council of Europe Boulevard across the River Te ...

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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 ...

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Thornaby-on-Tees 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 ...

, Southwest = , South = , Southeast =

Victoria Bridge Victoria Bridge may be a reference to: Bridges ;Australia * Victoria Bridge, Brisbane, a road bridge across the Brisbane River in Brisbane * Victoria Bridge, Devonport a road ridge across the Mersey River in Devonport, Tasmania * Victoria Bridge, M ...

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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'' ...

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(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