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Warburton Bridge, officially known as Rixton and Warburton Bridge, is a privately owned statutory tolled undertaking which incorporates a public highway road length.[1] The high-level cantilever bridge crosses the Manchester Ship Canal
36-mile-long (58 km) inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. on the B5159 road, connecting the A57 with the A6144, and was commissioned under the Rixton & Warburton Bridge Act 1863. That same Act also set a maximum charge of two shillings and six pence (12½p) for each crossing.[2][a]Following the decimal halfpenny ceasing to be legal tender in December 1984, the maximum that could be charged became 12p.[3]
The original stone bridge spanned the River Mersey prior to its diversion into the Manchester Ship Canal and the construction of the present-day bridge.[b]The Manchester Ship Canal was opened in 1894. Warburton is one of the few remaining pre-motorway toll bridges in the United Kingdom,[4] and the only one in Greater Manchester.[5][c]There are no such toll bridges in either Wales or Scotland.[1]. Scotland abolished all its toll roads in 2008.[6]
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The bridge is owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, part of the Peel Ports Group.[7] Despite local objections, in 2023 the company was given permission by the Department of Transport to increase the toll charge to £1, to pay for “much-needed improvement works”.[8]