Friday 16 Mar 2007
NETWORK RAIL INVESTS HEAVILY IN BASINGSTOKE'S RAILWAY
- Region & Route:
- | Southern: Wessex
- | Southern
Notes to editors
The Basingstoke Area Infrastructure Upgrade project has been planned since early 2003 and workers have been on-site since January 2006 carrying out works such as replacing track and points, extending the platforms at Basingstoke station, as well as other preparatory works including vegetation management and maintaining and strengthening embankments in the area. The project is part of Network Rail’s £1.5 billion investment in signalling across the country in the next three years. Installing a brand new signalling system in the area will see the replacement of more than 270 signalling units along an 80km mile stretch of track from Grateley to Farnborough and Mortimer to Litchfield Tunnel (north of Micheldever). Foundations of up to 14m are needed for each signalling unit. Over 1000km of cable will be used for the entire project, including 230km of copper and fibre cable alone for a new telecommunications system. 49 sets of switches and crossings have been designed and manufactured overall. They are produced in Nottinghamshire, transported to Basingstoke and then assembled on-site ready to be put in place by cranes. On a daily basis more than 300 people are involved in the project including more than 100 in management, around 60 designers and a construction team of more than 120. A state of the art, high security signalling control centre will open in Basingstoke. Not only does the centre boast the very latest in signalling technology but is designed to withstand a blast from a 100kg bomb going off within 20 metres of the building, and has several emergency back-up power supplies. A long list of suppliers is involved in the project, but the two main contractors are Balfour Beatty and Atkins. The Network Rail project team has liaised extensively with a number of organisations including South West Trains, First Great Western and Virgin Trains, Local Authorities, the Highways Agency, the emergency services, utility companies, residents and nearby businesses and railway regulatory bodies including Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate. Work to date is to deadline and on budget. The project will continue until the end of 2008 when works onsite will finish, with final testing, assessments and documentation due to complete in the first quarter of 2009.Contact information
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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.
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