How easy is putting up a temporary footbridge?

[BuiIdingBridges]

An events venue near me are claiming to be building a temporary footbridge over a major river to accommodate a huge event. This event is quite controversial locally due to the potential for huge traffic problems, and apparently this bridge will allow between 40-50000 pedestrians to cross the river for a long weekend without the local road network needing to be used.

The river is 60m wide at this point, deep/fast, and well used by boats and kayaks. It's also in an AONB and the whole river itself is a SSSI so it's notoriously very hard to do anything that might affect it (even much smaller projects).

I'm being asked by the local residents association to sign a letter against this event (due to the potential traffic chaos) but I'm trying to work out if it's viable or not first. If this bridge is really buildable then it would solve the issue and I don't want to be a NIMBY but it does seem like a very big project and if it can't be done then I am very much against the event taking place at all!

Did I read that right - 60 as in Sixty metres wide?

That's very wide surely for a temp structure. Will it have supports and struts and all that? I know it's for foot and maybe cycle traffic but it still sounds very wide to me!

Indeed! This place has it all

@delvan the river is 60m wide not the bridge itself. I have no idea how wide the bridge would be, perhaps we will be shown plans at this public meeting.

@BuiIdingBridges Yes, that's what I meant, that the river is 60m wide, so therefore the structure would have to reach across with room on either side to access and exit. Steps maybe? No matter what, that's WIDE!

Depending on the time of the year you may be restricted working in and around the river, due to fish/ bird population requirements. Ecology studies may be required to understand whether this is feasible.

What the rough cost of a 60 metre temporary bridge?

@BuiIdingBridges

If you let me know where you are, I can have a quick look at all the variables, such as topography, ground conditions, local employment, environmental conditions and protection. If you can put a pin on a map, with where the crossing is along with the programme time for the construction (as in when is it planned to start and when will it need to be finished by), then can probably give a better idea on potential cost.

You can’t post photos at the moment, so do a ‘what3words’ for each landing point of the potential crossing.

The temporary footbridge built by the Royal Engineers at Workington a few years ago was a 52m span. You can get temporary footbridges of about that span but they will have to build some sort of foundation/abutment each side which might be more of a challenge.