York officials step out on city’s bridge over troubled water

York’s newest bridge, the first to be built over the River Ouse in the city centre for 137 years, echoed to the sound of its first footsteps yesterday.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th Mar 2019, 10:52 BST
Updated 25th Mar 2019, 14:53 BST

The £4m Scarborough Bridge, a pedestrian and cycle crossing, is a replacement for a narrow footbridge, which is crossed by more than 3,000 people a day.

It will open to the public next month – later than expected after bad weather delayed the construction – but councillors and other officials were given a private preview.

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The bridge will provide a direct footway to the railway station and a scenic route, free of traffic, for visitors to the city. It will remain accessible even when the river is in flood – as it had been four days ago during the weekend rainfall.

The first walk across the new Scarborough Bridge, in York, over the River Ouse after it was closed to allow construction work for a new, wider and more accessible footbridge 65-meters long and three times as wide.The first walk across the new Scarborough Bridge, in York, over the River Ouse after it was closed to allow construction work for a new, wider and more accessible footbridge 65-meters long and three times as wide.
The first walk across the new Scarborough Bridge, in York, over the River Ouse after it was closed to allow construction work for a new, wider and more accessible footbridge 65-meters long and three times as wide.

York council’s transport spokesman, Peter Dew, has said it would be “worth the wait and will quickly become an iconic new feature of the city centre”.

The original bridge was designed and built by the railway pioneer Robert Stephenson in 1845, and saw a walkway placed between the train tracks.

Its replacement footbridge was installed when York Station was moved in 1870s, and has remained largely unchanged until now.

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