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Wednesday 15 Jul 2009

AIRPORT PROJECT TRIUMPHS AT NETWORK RAIL PARTNERSHIP AWARDS

Region & Route:

Carillion Civil Engineering, which has a regional base in Warrington, has picked up the ‘Best Project’ category in the first ever Network Rail Partnership Awards for its work to build a third platform at Manchester’s airport railway station.

The £15m project involved extensive civil engineering work to construct the platform to the south of the existing station with minimal disruption to both the existing train services and passengers, as well as guests staying at the nearby Bewleys Hotel.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in Birmingham, Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher said: “Selecting the winners was tough and all our short-listed entrants should feel proud to have made it through such an impressive pool of entries. Our finalists have made a real difference to Network Rail and the millions of people who travel by rail every day. Congratulations to everyone.”

Rob Coupe, Regional Director, Carillion Civil Engineering, said: “This project is a terrific example of Carillion and Network Rail working together in collaboration as a seamless team. This enabled us all to achieve such a positive result. On behalf of all those people who contributed to this project’s success – thank you, we’re delighted that it’s been recognised by such a prestigious award.”

One of the most challenging parts of the project was to ‘slide’ a new bridge section into place to carry Outwood Lane over the end of the new platform. The road is one of the main routes in and out of the airport and extremely busy at all times. It had to be closed and diversions set up while it was excavated to create the space needed for the bridge slide.

The bridge section had been built on site alongside the existing station platforms in an area where the railway embankment had been cut away to accommodate the new platform. It was duly jacked up on a multi-wheeled vehicle and inch by inch propelled into position. The road was then rebuilt over the top of the new bridge and opened to traffic several days ahead of schedule.

The new platform was then constructed in the space vacated by the bridge section.

The entire project, which was essential for the introduction of the new west coast timetable last December, was completed over a week early and has been instrumental in reducing railway congestion on the approaches to Manchester’s Piccadilly station.