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Thursday 18 Sep 2003

£800,000 SHAP REPAIR WORK KEEPS THE RAILWAY RUNNING

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Network Rail has almost completed an £800,000 project at Shap on the west coast main line.  A steep-sided cutting on either side of the railway has been regraded and repaired to prevent any further movements in the embankments.  The slopes have been set to a less severe angle and the area has also been rock netted to prevent any rock fragments falling foul of the line.  The improvements at Shap are an example of a new monitoring approach that has been adopted by the regional earthwork team at Network Rail.  The aim is to prevent emergency speed restrictions caused by land in need of repair. The team headed by Gerry Manley, Regional Earthworks Engineer, has been monitoring sites along the west coast main line with new, sophisticated monitoring equipment – inclinometers.  These are drilled into the ground and can detect early signs of sites in need of repair. Gerry Manley said, “This has been a successful project, and it’s good to see that work of this size can be carried out without causing disruption to public services.  It is a credit to those involved and we intend to use the new approach to monitoring sites with potential for land slips throughout the North West region.” - more - Shap – 1 This work was carried out with the help of a land agreement from an adjacent farmer who gave his permission for a temporary road that was built through his fields to provide access for plant and equipment.  This kind offer to assist in the continuation of the project has prevented the work from interfering with any passenger services along the busy stretch of railway.