Entrants were asked to design fully accessible footbridges that can be used across Britain’s rail network. Design concepts need to further improve the legacy of rail pioneers and the enduring examples of their footbridge designs that already exist across the rail landscape. Network Rail owns just under 2,400 footbridges, providing access across the railway for both passengers at stations and people using rights of way.

As part of the Department for Transport’s Access for All (AfA) programme, Network Rail has installed 200 footbridges since 2006. The AfA funding initiative was established to improve accessibility at railway stations through the creation of obstacle free routes from station entrances to platforms.

The competition was open internationally to practising architects, structural engineers, civil engineers or teams thereof, together with students of these design disciplines.

The competition was organised over a single phase, involving the anonymous submission and appraisal of design proposals. A Design Fund of £20,000 was be available for award at discretion of the Judging Panel to the submission judged to be the best response to the challenges outlined in the Competition Brief.

More than 120 entries were received from 19 countries. The Evaluation Panel were extremely impressed by the high quality of the submitted entries, the breadth of the approaches and interesting ideas developed in response to the challenge.

The overall winner was:

Gottlieb Paludan Architects, DK with Strasky, Husty and Partners Ltd, CZ

The judges also decided to highly commend an entry by Hawkins\Brown with WSP.

Exhibition opens to showcase Network Rail footbridge designs
28 February – 3 April 2019 - RIBA Practice Space, 66 Portland Place

This new exhibition in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Practice Space features a selection of entries from the 2018 RIBA Competition to design a new Network Rail Footbridge.