Second City Crossing nears Christmas completion

Main construction works on the £165 million Second City Crossing in Manchester is on track to finish before Christmas.

The final rails have now been laid and all major civil engineering works – including installing overhead lines to power the trams along the route – should be completed by the end of 2016.

The Second City Crossing will provide Manchester with more frequent, reliable and flexible services to run on the busy tram network, which now hosts more than 35 million journeys a year.

The Second City Crossing leaves Victoria Station and travels along Corporation Street to a new stop created at Exchange Square. Services will continue along Cross Street and Princess Street to run through the major new stop recently completed in St Peter’s Square.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) opened the first phase of the route, from Victoria Station through to a new stop at Exchange Square in December last year, fast-tracked thanks to a grant from the European Regional Development Fund.

By completing on schedule, the millions of visitors expected in Manchester over the busy Christmas period will be free from any disruption from Metrolink construction work.

It was feared that work on the project would not be complete until summer 2017 due a number of unforeseen major construction challenges brought about by the city’s Victorian infrastructure. These included a collapsed Victorian sewer, and double the number of anticipated exhumations following the discovery of a former church graveyard on Cross Street.

The project is part of the £1Bn Grow scheme, investing in Manchester city centre infrastructure improvements, including bus priority measures, six new and improved cycleways and major rail improvements.

Councillor Andrew Fender, Chair of the TfGM Committee, said: “It’s great to see these final sections of rail laid, one of the final jigsaw pieces in the puzzle.

“With some infrastructure still dating back to the Victorians, building through a busy city has not been an easy task. The scale of the venture has been impressive and, while there has been inevitable disruption, we’re close to the finish line and to customers, residents and businesses reaping the benefits.”

Cllr Fender said that since work began on the project in 2008, the number of journeys using the Metrolink network has risen from 27 to 35 million a year.

He commented: ““To make room for more customers we’ve also opened a new tram stop in Exchange Square and competed major rebuilds of a further four city centre tram stops.

“This major overhaul will mean we can continue supporting the demand to travel from workers, residents and visitors to our ever-growing city – connecting people with jobs, days out, family and friends.”

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