Monday 17 Oct 2011
RAIL BRIDGE TO BE REPLACED
- Region & Route:
Network Rail is rebuilding and strengthening a railway bridge on Walton Lane, Nelson to make sure large vehicles such as those used by the emergency services can continue to use it.
Nichola Smith, Network Rail’s project manager explained: “We are rebuilding the bridge to make sure it meets the latest regulations regarding the weight of traffic over it. If we don’t rebuild it, the local authority will have to put a weight restriction on it, and this could affect large vehicles such as those used by the emergency services.”
Two of the bridge arches are being strengthened by filling them in, while the third is being replaced with a new structure using pre-cast concrete beams.
Work started today (17 October 2011) on the £1.3m project with the construction of a temporary bridge over the railway that will be used to carry services such as electricity and telephone cables once they have been removed from underneath the road surface.
The temporary bridge will also be used by pedestrians to cross the road and will be fully accessible for anyone in a wheelchair or pushing a buggy or bicycle.
Work will continue until the end of January and throughout this time the road will be closed and a signed diversion put in place.
The main part of the project will be over the last weekend in November and the first in December, when a crane will be used to lift out the old bridge and lower the new one into position.
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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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