Greybeard33
Established Member
Network Rail's Ordsall Chord website, http://www.networkrail.co.uk/north/Ordsall-Chord.aspx, contains links to all the numerous Inquiry documents, both pro and anti, for those with the time and patience to wade through them.The NR website has a list of papers relating to the public enquiry. Among them is a Statement of Case from Mark Whitby, in which he presents an alternative plan with 6 variants. Basically the same as the plan proposed by QueensCurve in Post #470.
The link is :- http://www.networkrail.co.uk/north/ordsall-chord/statement-of-case-mark-whitby.pdf
It is surprising, to say the least, that this information was not presented in public. Indeed, I would have thought English Heritage would have brought the enquiry's attention to its existence, as they were among those with the strongest objections.
There are diagrams of some of the alternative options in http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/projects/northern%20hub/ordsall-chord/proofs%20of%20evidence/poe%2002%20-%20eng%20and%20construction%20-%20volume%202.pdf from Page 50 on. From Page 85 on it has NR's engineering objections to Mark Whitby's proposed alternative routes. Other documents linked from the website give NR's critique of Mark Whitby's assertions about cost and regeneration impact.
English Heritage favours "Option 15", the Salford Locks alternative route, which was strongly opposed by Salford Council and Scarborough Developments. There is a detailed, 58 page, Engineering Analysis Briefing Note for this option in NR's Statement of Case http://www.networkrail.co.uk/ordsall-chord/statement-of-case/network-rail.pdf, starting on Page 115. This includes detailed drawings and a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis. It concluded that Option 15 is a viable engineering solution but performs poorly in terms of environment and sustainability. NR's rationale for selecting Option 14 over Option 15 is summarised on Pages 251 & 252 of the Statement of Case document.