Aston Church Road Overbridge and Saltley Viaduct replaced the existing road bridges that do not provide sufficient clearance for HS2 to pass underneath. User experience has been central to the design process, ensuring communities are better connected, and encouraging a healthier lifestyle. Pedestrians and cyclists are fully segregated from road traffic, with generous 4-metre-wide cantilevered walkways.

Prefabrication was maximised using an offline construction methodology, allowing bridges to be constructed alongside the existing structures. This minimises disruption to the local community, as the demolition of the existing structures does not need to begin until the new bridges are in place.

In addition to bridge DfMA (design for manufacture and assembly), the intelligent application of artificial lighting was a key driver for the designs. With the biodiversity of bats and local wildlife populations, particularly at Saltley, the bridge lighting scheme needed to ensure the mitigation of light spill. In response to this and the risk of vehicle strike of conventional lighting columns over the high-speed railway below, we developed an innovative, low-level localised lighting scheme that enhanced light levels for pedestrians and cyclists on the bridge while preventing light pollution into the sky or light spill below.