Cody Dock is a huge ex-industrial dock located on the bank of the Lea river in east London. The Dock is now home to a dynamic community of artistic people who are in the process of transforming the place from dereliction into an oasis of creativity and production. A key part of this is reopening the dock to the Lea’s tidal waters so it can be used for moorings. This requires the removal of a dam and the introduction of an opening footbridge. This new footbridge will carry the ‘Leaway’ footpath and cycle route and also ‘The Line’ Sculpture walk. The derelict dock currently acts as a barrier to pedestrians and cyclists accessing an amazing green corridor which runs from Hertfordshire, through Waltham Abbey and the Olympic Park, before ending at the Thames.
The new footbridge is a first of its kind in the UK; it rolls along the longitudinal axis, raising the deck over the navigation clearance and allowing boats to travel underneath. Made from weathering steel with parapets from galvanised reinforcing bar, the bridge was fabricated in four parts at the Cake Industries workshop and transported to site. It was lifted into a position on complex curved tracks sited on each dock edge. Steam bent oak rubbing strips sit as a sacrificial layer between the track and the bridge. The entire bridge is operated using a pair of manual winches.
Client: Gasworks Dock Partnership
Design: Thomas Randall-Page
Structural Engineering: Price & Myers
Mechanical Engineering: Eadon Consulting
Main contractor and fabrication: Cake Industries
Funding: The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Sub-contractors: Charlie Whinney Studio, Kloeckner, Angle Ring.
Photographs and video: Jim Stephenson
