Wednesday 2 Jun 2021
Birmingham brick Victorian viaducts get railway revamp
- Region & Route:
- North West & Central
- | North West & Central: Central
Two Victorian-built railway viaducts in Birmingham are having essential repairs to make them more reliable for passenger and freight journeys.
The large brick structures take tracks over the River Cole in two locations to the west of Stechford station.
Scaffolding has been put up so structural engineers can do a full inspection of the 185-year-old structures.
Network Rail will then replace broken viaduct bricks and carry out major mortar repairs and repointing during the work.
The £1.1m Railway Upgrade Plan investment will keep the viaducts safe and reliable for many years to come.
Sreedevi Thekkedathu, scheme project manager at Network Rail, said: “These essential upgrades at Stechford will improve passenger and freight journeys on these busy routes in and out of Birmingham. Carrying out work on historic structures like these viaducts is a real privilege but it is also a challenge given their height over the river. We’d like to thank people living and working nearby for their patience while we carry out this vital maintenance over the coming months.”
The repairs started in May and will take place until November 2021.
No trains will be disrupted while the project is carried out.
The noisiest work will take place during the day to avoid inconveniencing nearby residents at night.
Due to the repairs being over the River Cole, Network Rail is working with the Environment Agency during the project.
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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.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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