£2.5 MILLION BRIDGE REPLACEMENT IN SELBY

Monday 4 Jun 2007

£2.5 MILLION BRIDGE REPLACEMENT IN SELBY

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A massive operation to lift a brand new rail bridge into place over Selby canal was completed by Network Rail this weekend. In order to minimise disruption to rail and canal users the bridge was built off-site and lifted into place by a 1200 tonne crane. In just 54 hours engineers removed the old bridge and lifted in the new one, restoring tracks and all the signalling in time for the railway to re-open at 6am on Monday morning. Neil Henry, area general manager for Network Rail said: "This was a massive undertaking and has been many months in the planning. The old bridge had reached the end of its useful life and needed replacing. We have spent around £2.5 million in designing, building and installing this new bridge which will last around 120 years." Finishing works will continue on the line outside train running hours.

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

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