[1] The project will involve extensive redevelopment of the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal and will be led by the Peel Group, the largest property investment company in the United Kingdom.
The Manchester Ship Canal runs alongside Trafford Park, Europe's largest industrial estate and home to many international companies such as Kelloggs and Adidas.
Its wine imports from South America, Australia and California are now brought through the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal to a storage facility at Irlam and then transported to a bottling plant less than a half a mile away.
[5] As of 2010, only 7 per cent of the cargo-carrying potential of the Manchester Ship Canal is utilised, with the UK relying mostly on the transportation of goods now done by road haulage.
They also believe that the rising cost of fuel and the fact that road haulage volumes have to remain flat until 2050 for the UK to hit is carbon emissions targets, makes the Ship Canal a worthwhile project.
[6] In recent years, companies such as Prince's,[7] Tesco,[8] Adidas[9] and Shell[10] have used the barge service on the Ship Canal to transport products further inland from Liverpool.
[17] To maximise Port Salford's potential, the Western Gateway Enabling Scheme will improve access to the site and surrounding areas.
[21] The development is planned to create at least 17,000 full-time jobs and 21,000,000 square feet (1,951,000 m2) of new commercial and residential floor-space, including 23,000 apartments and four hotels.
The proposals include a waterfront hotel,[27] bars, restaurants, other leisure facilities and 15,000 apartments to be housed in a series of towers, three of which will be fifty storeys high.
[28] A dedicated development is also proposed for the site of the former Bidston Dock, close to the M53 motorway and the Kingsway road tunnel to Liverpool.