Shanks Millennium Bridge

Today we made our annual ditch monitoring visit to Bradley Fen, part of the Nene Washes Special Protection Area. This involves quite a lot of walking, but the weather was pretty much perfect, with broken cloud and a cool breeze to keeep the horseflies and mosquitoes away. And the bulls were very laid back too...

To access the site we have to cross the River Nene using the Shanks Millennium Bridge. This forms part of the Green Wheel which provides a pedestrian and cycle route around the outside of Peterborough with 'spokes' running into the centre. This bridge is the final link of the route and it crosses the River Nene to the east of the city.

Apparently it's 'a multi-span weathering steel box girder supported on steel piers and piles. Unusually, the deck and pier steelwork is left unpainted. This was done to significantly reduce maintenance costs. The rusty steel is entirely in keeping with the bridge's rural context. The box girder is surfaced in concrete for equestrian use. For pedestrians a more friendly timber deck is laid on steel arms cantilevered off the girder.'

The bridge has great visual impact, with its dramatic curve sweeping across the river, especially when paired with some pretty ominous looking clouds. Under the bridge you can see some of the houseboats that I photographed during the floods of December 2012 while on the right-hand side the chimneys of King's Dyke brickworks protrude above a row of screening poplars - there's no smoke so I suspect the works is having its annual holiday.

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