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Wednesday 15 Nov 2017

New bridge over canal in Burnley

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

A worn-out railway bridge over a canal in Burnley was replaced last weekend (Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 November) by Network Rail engineers as part of the Great North Rail Project.

The rotten and rusted old bridge next to Burnley Barracks was craned out before a 80-tonne new one was lifted in using a 1,000-tonne crane.

Twenty-five Team Orange workers grafted round the clock to get the job done.

The task include installing a temporary pontoon across the Leeds-Liverpool Canal to catch falling debris as the old structure, approaching 100 years old, was removed.

The £1.4m job was done by Network Rail in partnership with contractors Murphy and Story.

Chris Atkins, scheme project manager, said: “This work was excellently planned and excellently delivered. Well done, everyone involved.

“Replacing this bridge is a must-do job that is essential for the continued safe running of the railway for customers in Burnley.”

Chris Wright, senior operations manager for Murphy, said: “It was down to the great planning and execution of our team that we were able to finish replacing the bridge over the canal over the weekend. It was excellent seeing many people from our engineering, commercial and procurement teams on site, gaining experience and helping the operations team any way they could. This is a fantastic example of how Murphy gets the whole team involved by sharing the same objective, and it’s a real group effort and achievement.”

Fifty metres of new bi-directional track was laid across the new bridge, which is a bi-directional, lesser-used branch line.