Competition - winning essay announced
The people have decided that Hull’s new bridge is going to be named after the city’s first female GP after an astonishing 55,000 votes were cast.
As we face our biggest public health crisis in decades, it is perhaps poignant that the winning nominee is trailblazer Dr Mary Murdoch, who was the house surgeon at the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children in Park Street and founder of the Hull Women’s Suffrage Society.
Students from Newland School for Girls and Archbishop Sentamu Academy submitted essays answering the question: ‘The naming of the bridge – who inspires me and why?’
Read the winning essay about Dr Mary Murdoch
From around 100 essays the judging panel shortlisted: World War Two veteran Thomas Ransom, Dr Mary Murdoch who was Hull’s first female GP, headscarf revolutionary Lillian Bilocca, philanthropist and abolitionist William Wilberforce and Julia Lee, the first woman to officiate men’s rugby league games in the United Kingdom. Have a look at the shortlisted essays.
The public were then asked to cast their vote online and at Hull Minster on who they thought should inspire the name of the new bridge which is going to significantly improve connectivity in the centre of Hull.
We’ll now work with the students who nominated Dr Murdoch so we can establish the final name of the bridge based on this winning entry, and this will be announced when it is opened in the summer.
The bridge, which has received a funding contribution of £4 million by the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, is the first phase of the A63 Castle Street improvements scheme and will create better pedestrian links in Hull city centre.
The new bridge is 60m long and weighs 150 tonnes. It has been in position across the A63, since November 2019, after it was wheeled into place 15 hours ahead of schedule.
Alongside this, we’ve made improvements at Roger Millward Way (formerly known as Garrison Road). The existing junction has been improved with a ‘hamburger’ design, which provides a new road running through the middle of the roundabout creating the burger shape. This will ease congestion and improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
Now the bridge is installed we’re focusing on the remaining of the work we need to do to complete the bridge which will involve installing the ramps and steps, and completing the marina platform and landscaping.
In the next few months the north and south steel sections of the ramp will be lifted into place overnight, 90 tonnes of concrete will be poured on the deck. Around 500 tonnes of granite will be delivered to site and installed over the coming months and landscaping work will begin.
The bridge, which is covered by a curving steel canopy, will also have sheltered viewing balconies at each end which will give people a space to enjoy the views of the city and waterfront. There will also be new landscaped public areas at both the Princes Quay and marina sides.
