Five teams of architects have been shortlisted to enter to a design competition for new bridges in Ipswich.

Above: The Orwell Crossings Project is expected to lead to wider regeneration of Ipswich’s waterfront

Suffolk County Council wants to ease traffic congestion in Ipswich and improve connections between the waterfront and the town centre. Its solution is the £77m Orwell Crossings Project. This will see the construction of two new crossings near the town’s waterfront area, together with the refurbishment of an existing swing bridge across the lock that provides access to the Wet Dock and its marina facilities. The new crossings should also pave the way for wider regeneration of Ipswich’s waterfront.

A design competition for the project is being run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Competitions, which has now produced this shortlist of applicants:

– Adamson Associates (Toronto) with William Matthews Associates and Ney & Partners

– Foster & Partners (London)

– Knight Architects (High Wycombe)

– Marc Mimram (Paris)

– Wilkinson Eyre (London) with consulting engineers Fhecor Ingenieros Consultores (civil) and Eadon Consulting (mechanical)

In selecting the shortlist, the evaluation panel looked for architectural teams that demonstrated experience of collaborating on major infrastructure projects, working within a multi-disciplinary team environment, and designing projects of architectural distinction with a complexity, scale and/or budget similar to that required on the Upper Orwell Crossings scheme.  The final winner will join an existing project team led by WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, which will be responsible for providing structural and civil engineering input to the project.

The evaluation panel consisted of Suffolk County Council’s project manager and planning consents manager, together with WSP associate director Kevin Drain and Matter Architecture director Jonathan McDowell acting as the RIBA architect adviser.

The five short-listed teams will be invited to present their design concepts to the judging panel, chaired by architect Sir Michael Hopkins, in mid-December 2016. A winner is scheduled to be announced in early 2017.