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Wednesday 7 Jun 2006

NETWORK RAIL OPENS NEW £10M BRIDGE OVER RIVER TAME

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Network Rail this week opened a new bridge over the River Tame, as part of the company’s £350m investment in the Trent Valley Four Tracking Project (TV4). Passengers across the country will benefit from this key milestone as trains use the new bridge for the first time. The River Tame part of the project started back in May 2005. It involves Network Rail building two new bridges over the river Tame in order to allow four tracks to run simultaneously through the area. Senior Network Rail Project Manager Keith Riley said: “This is a significant step forward. Seeing the new bridge in full use is a testament to the hard work put in by the project team. When completed this project will double the capacity of the railway line in the region, providing a more reliable service for passengers travelling between London, the Midlands, the North West and Scotland”. In order to minimise disruption, the work is being completed in two phases:

• Phase 1: Completed last weekend (3-4 June). The second of two existing railway tracks was moved from an existing bridge onto the new bridge. The first track was moved during the previous weekend.
• Phase 2: The existing bridge will be demolished and replaced with a second new bridge. Two additional tracks will then be built onto this new bridge, taking the total number of tracks crossing the river Tame to four.