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Thursday 3 Oct 2024

Improvement work set to begin on Glasgow city centre rail bridge

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

A six month project to improve a 140-year-old railway bridge over Salkeld Street, in Glasgow, has begun. 

It's part of a wider £1.5m programme to repair bridges near Glasgow Central and will continue until March 2025.

The steel structure spans Salkeld Street and the West Coast Main Line, and work includes 'rivet busting' to remove and replace the rivets that hold the steel in place, as well as steelwork repairs and painting.

Engineers will also complete 'ballast retention' work, which will see measures put in place to stop ballast - the stone which holds the rails in place - escaping and falling from the structure.

Network Rail, along with principal contractor Story, have a site compound set up at an existing railway depot at Salkeld Street.

Christina Thomson, scheme project manager, Network Rail, said: “The essential maintenance and renewals work at Salkeld Street bridge helps Network Rail continue to run a safe and reliable railway throughout Glasgow and the surrounding areas.

“This vital work will not only improve the look of the 140-year-old bridge, it will also extend its lifespan for up to two decades.

“We appreciate the impact our activity will have on those living closest to the bridge and while we will do all we can to minimise this, we are limited in terms of what measures can be put in place to mitigate against some the nosier elements generated by the heavier engineering, such as the rivet busting activity.

“We are grateful to the community for their patience while we complete this significant improvement work.”

Scaffolding will be in place for the duration of the works to allow engineers to safely work on the structure.  

Work has started at the west side of the bridge and will continue until later this month, with a single-lane closure in place on the northbound road underneath the bridge. Work will then switch to the east side until later in November, with a southbound single-lane closure in place.

As the work at Salkeld Street nears completion, a similar programme of renewal works will start to the railway bridge at Eglinton Street and Network Rail will provide an update ahead of this.

The bridge works are part of a wide-ranging bridge modernisation programme aimed at protecting and improving Scotland’s Railway, with over £1.95 billion being invested to increase reliability and improve performance.

If you have any questions about this work, you can contact Network Rail’s 24-hour national helpline on 03457 11 41 41. For the latest information and updates, follow Network Rail Scotland on X (Twitter) @NetworkRailSCOT or visit ScotlandsRailway.com.