Walkway to bridge funding gap

A multi-million pound bridge to carry trams into the heart of Birmingham will serve as just a pedestrian walkway if almost £400 million of funding for the Midland Metro to expand is not given, the Express & Star has learned.

The concrete viaduct close to Snow Hill train station is now starting to take shape, but transport bosses have pledged that it will have a purpose even if the £386 million of government funding for the expansion to the tram network into the city centre does not get Government approval.

Centro, the West Midlands passenger transport authority, has revealed the nine million pound viaduct, which goes across Colmore Row, will become a pedestrian walkway if it is not used for its original purpose.

Construction started last April and is being paid for by private developer Ballymore to go with the £116m Birmingham city centre extension of the tram system.

The work forms part of Ballymore's £500m Snow Hill scheme, which will eventually comprise 600,000 sq ft of offices in two buildings. The decision was taken to build the viaduct alongside the rest of the project to avoid causing more disruption later on.

More than 300 residential apartments are under construction together with a five-star hotel, restaurants, cafes and shops.

The viaduct will run at street level through Snow Hill and would carry the Midland Metro Line One extension into the city centre, serving Bull Street, Corporation Street, New Street Station and Broad Street with the terminus on the Hagley Road. It would also carry trams which would run through Wednesbury and Brierley Hill.

Centro spokeswoman Babs Coombes said today: "Until we get the go-ahead for the Midland Metro extension, which we are still confident of getting, the viaduct will be used as a pedestrian walkway."

The business case for the £386m Midland Metro Phase One extensions, which also includes a route in the Black Country from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill via Dudley, was submitted to Government in 2006.

Studies show the proposed lines would create more than 5,000 jobs in Birmingham and the West Midlands and help to reduce congestion costing the region's economy £2.2 billion a year.