Media centre

Thursday 15 Apr 2004

£1.2 MILLION FACE LIFT FOR WOKINGHAM RAIL BRIDGES

Region & Route:

| Southern: Wessex

| Southern

            Network Rail has successfully completed a £1.2m scheme to rebuild and restore two traditional, Victorian, brick rail bridges between Winnersh Triangle and Wokingham Stations.             Arbour Lane and Embrook Bridges were partly rebuilt, refurbished and repainted, restoring them to their original condition. The bridges were beginning to deteriorate in places and maintenance work was becoming disruptive and costly. The work has increased the life of the bridges by 125 years.              Built circa 1848, the structures have been carefully rebuilt with particular attention paid to the paint scheme, which has been designed to complement the local area. The brickwork has been painted with specialist paint to allow easy cleaning of graffiti.             Edmund Nuttall Ltd was the main contractor for the work, which took four months to complete. The exiting timber bridge decks, which carry the tracks, were removed and replaced with new steel, ballasted structures, which were swung into place using 400 tonne cranes. Further strengthening work to the bridge abutments and painting has been carried out. Network Rail takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and liaised with the local authority prior to the start of the work. The contractors worked to strict guidelines to ensure that disturbance to the local environment and residents was kept to an absolute minimum. The work was specifically programmed to take place at the weekends to ensure that peak commuter travel periods remained unaffected. Network Rail and South West Trains worked together, ensuring passengers were notified well in advance. Passengers can now expect a smoother, quieter and more reliable journey with local residents benefiting from reduced noise from trains passing across the bridges.             Network Rail’s Regional Director, Robin Gisby said, “This work forms part of Network Rail’s commitment to rebuild Britain’s railway.  A considerable amount of work, money and effort has been put into these scheme and I’m very pleased they have been so successful.”