The new design, by the AVA Consortium, aims to speed up the delivery of railway footbridges, reduce costs and cut carbon emissions. Employing a modular approach, the AVA footbridge is also customisable to suit different station requirements.
The AVA Consortium is a collaboration of design, engineering, manufacturing and construction companies. Its members are engineering consultant Expedition Engineering, architect Hawkins\Brown, contractor Walker Construction, steelwork fabricator McNealy Brown, and Network Rail.
The consortium says its mission is to “revolutionise railway footbridge design and installation through innovative solutions and cutting-edge technology”.
AVA’s development was driven by a need to enhance productivity in delivering footbridges across the rail network. Traditional footbridges don’t meet Network Rail’s aspiration to reduce capital expenditure, installation time and carbon footprint. They also fail to satisfy Network Rail’s ‘Access for All’ programme to provide an obstacle-free accessible route to and between platforms.
AVA claims to address these challenges head-on.
The AVA footbridge is a flexible modular design with an integrated lighting system, and an exposed bead-blasted stainless steel finish. The components are designed and manufactured using the latest ‘smart’ digital methods. The consortium says that the full potential will be realised through batch production and economies of scale as production ramps up.
The design is configurable, allowing for various bridge and lift arrangements to meet specific site requirements. Both span and height are flexible, with customisation options including the addition of a roof.
Chris Wise, senior director, Expedition Engineering, said: “We’ve designed this bridge as a system – it’s not a custom-designed bridge for each site, it is a system that you can configure to fit on any site.
“The components can vary in scale or in number; they can be tuned up or down, depending on whether you need to go higher or lower over the railway. Spans can vary – we can go from two track to four track with an island platform, or to six track … so it’s a reconfigurable design."
The AVA consortium worked with the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry on a knowledge-based engineering configurator. “It is a bit like the configurators you get for your kitchen or if you want to buy a new car,” said Wise.
According to the consortium the use of stainless steel for both structure and cladding extends the design life of the footbridge to 120 years, with only minor maintenance required. This reduces early-stage degradation, minimises disruption to passengers, lowers whole-life carbon footprint, and cuts down overall lifecycle costs, according to AVA.
The AVA modular lift is an outdoor-rated system designed deliver a safe and robust passenger lift that is easy to both maintain and to use. Lift modules are fully-assembled and tested before being transported by road to site for installation and commissioning with minimum station disruption.
The AVA concept design has already met with approval and is listed in the latest edition of the Network Rail Footbridges & Subways design manual. An independent assessment commissioned by Network Rail awarded AVA maximum points for sustainability, passenger experience, safety, maintenance, and costs compared to other approved Network Rail footbridges, according to the consortium.
The AVA consortium is funded by Network Rail and the Transport Infrastructure Efficiency Strategy’s Living Lab programme with additional grant aid from Innovate UK through the Transforming Construction programme. It has also received contributions from the Department for Transport, HS2, Transport for London, Network Rail and Highways England.
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