The Mersey Gateway Project

Mersey Gateway project looking for local volunteers

August 26, 2014MerseylinkNews

Local residents from Halton and the surrounding area are being invited to become volunteers and be part of the ‘once in a lifetime’ Mersey Gateway Bridge project.

Merseylink is holding a volunteer information day on Tuesday 2 September 2014 at 5.45pm in the Kingsway Learning Centre in Widnes to give potential volunteers an idea of the role they could play.

So far around 40 local people have enrolled as volunteers with Merseylink. The construction consortium is seeking hundreds more to join the project team and help to tell the story of Halton and the £600m bridge – one of the largest building projects in the UK – over the next three and a half years.

All successful applicants will be enrolled on to a special Mersey Gateway volunteer training programme, which will cover the following aspects:

  • employability skills
  • customer skills
  • presentation skills
  • community engagement
  • history, aims and objectives of the project
  • local heritage
  • scope of project – works, services and tolling
  • construction programme – length, phases, key milestones.

Once recruited, volunteers will work alongside Merseylink staff in delivering a programme of talks, presentations and temporary exhibitions in local community venues, schools and colleges. Volunteers will also support the exhibitions, talks and presentations offered through the visitor centres.

To register your interest, please email volunteers@merseylink.com.

The economic, transport and social benefits that the Mersey Gateway Project will bring to the region include:

  • 470 permanent full-time equivalent jobs on site during construction
  • 4,640 permanent direct and indirect jobs
  • £61.9 million a year in Gross Value Added from the new jobs by 2030.

When it opens in 2017, both the new bridge and the Silver Jubilee Bridge will be tolled, but both bridges will be free* to all Halton residents.

*Residents of Halton will still need to register to use the bridges and there will be a small charge for this.

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