Media centre

Monday 5 Dec 2016

Cleland railway bridge re-opens on time following £1.3m upgrade

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Biggar Road, Cleland has re-opened to traffic following completion of Network Rail’s work to upgrade the bridge over the railway in preparation for the electrification of the Shotts line which runs through the village.

Work on the £1.3m investment to replace the bridge deck and raise the height of the parapets was delivered over four months and completed on time and on budget to enable the road to re-open ahead of the busy pre-Christmas period.

Having demolished the old brick side walls and removed the deck using a vacuum excavator, the new bridge surface was created using 62 cubic metres of concrete and 6 tonnes of reinforcement before 16 pre-cast concrete parapets (side walls) were lifted into position using a 500 tonne crane sited in the station car park.   

Network Rail is carrying out bridge replacements at 17 locations and increasing the height of 10 existing bridge parapets (side walls) ahead of the electrification of the Shotts line as part of a major Scottish Government programme of investment to upgrade central Scotland’s railway infrastructure. The bridge work in Cleland was to allow overhead electrification cables to be installed safely under bridges.

The completion of the bridge at Biggar Road in Cleland marks another step towards ‘height clearing’ bridges on the line and creating another fully electrified route connecting Scotland’s two major cities.

Iain McFarlane, Network Rail’s head of programme management, said:

“The electrification of central Scotland’s railway is a genuinely transformational investment in our infrastructure that will lead to faster journeys on a new fleet of quieter, greener electric trains.

“While it is inevitable that this type of investment cannot be delivered without some disruption, Biggar Road bridge is another project completed on schedule in a challenging live railway environment, so credit is due to the Network Rail team and our contractors, BAM Nuttall, who have delivered this work to programme.

“I would like to thank North Lanarkshire Council for their support and cooperation in planning and delivering this work. I’d also like to thank residents in Cleland for their patience while we delivered this important railway investment.”

This project is part of the Scottish Government’s rolling programme of electrification which is being delivered by Network Rail which also includes the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line via Falkirk High and routes to Stirling, Dunblane and Alloa, as well as the already completed Airdrie-Bathgate line.

Updates on the project and latest information about the work will be posted on twitter @ShottsLineElec