HARTLEPOOL GETS £2.7 MILLON NEW BRIDGE

Monday 7 Aug 2006

HARTLEPOOL GETS £2.7 MILLON NEW BRIDGE

Region & Route:

Passengers travelling in and around Hartlepool will soon find their journeys are smoother and quicker, thanks to the replacement of the rail bridge over Lancaster Road. The old bridge will be cut into four pieces and removed before the new one is lifted into place. The scale of the project means both the road and rail line will have to be closed at certain points during the work. The road will be closed from Monday 7 August and the rail route around Hartlepool will be closed from 11pm on Friday 11 August until 7am on Sunday 20 August. Richard Bell, territory civil engineer for Network Rail said: “This work is an example of Network Rail’s investment in the North East. This £2.7million replacement project will allow us to increase train speeds across the bridge, making journey’s quicker for passengers.” The new bridge will last more than 100 years. Cutting work, which can be noisy, will only be carried out during the day daytime to keep disruption for local people to a minimum

Notes to editors

Network Rail has been working with Hartlepool Borough council to minimise disruption to the road network and to local residents The bridge sits on the Northallerton to Newcastle costal route and Northern Rail has been working with Network Rail to maintain the best possible service. Service details: Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 August A bus replacement service will operate between Sunderland and Middlesbrough Monday 14 to Friday 18 August A bus replacement service will operate between Seaham and Hartlepool Passengers are advised to contact National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950 or Northern's Customer Helpline on 0845 00 00 125 for further information

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -London North Eastern & East Midlands route
01904 383180
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

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.

Media centre