Thursday 6 Dec 2007
RAIL BRIDGE TO BE REPLACED IN NEW YEAR
- Region & Route:
Network Rail is investing £1.4 million in a project to completely replace the bridge that carries Wistaston Road in Crewe over the railway line to Chester. Work is due to start in the New Year and will take up to six months to complete.
The work is being carried out as part of a national programme to assess approximately 10,000 road-over-rail bridges throughout the UK to ensure they meet current standards in line with EU regulations.
Tony Wilcock, Network Rail’s Territory Civil Engineer explained: “The bridge has failed its assessment so it needs to be completely replaced. That does not mean it is in danger of collapse but it does mean that if we do not carry out the work, there will have to be a permanent weight restriction of 7.5 tonnes placed on the bridge. That would mean only light vehicles would be able to use the bridge, and would exclude buses and emergency service vehicles such as ambulances and fire appliances.”
A spokesman for Cheshire County Council said, "We're pleased to be working with Network Rail on this bridge replacement. It's an important project, essential to the provision of good unrestricted access to the centre of Crewe and something we, as highways authority, welcome."
To carry out the work, a small section of Wistaston Road close to its junction with Dunwoody Way will close from 2 January, and local diversions will be put in place.
Network Rail will be using a 500 tonnes crane to lift out the old bridge and lower the new one into place. The crane will be positioned on Dunwoody Way, which runs alongside the railway line, and this in turn will mean a second road closure from 21 to 31 March 2008 while this part of the project is completed.
The railway line from Crewe to Chester will be closed overnight from midnight Saturday to approximately 8.30am Sunday each weekend during the work but this will have minimal impact on rail services.
Network Rail and Cheshire County Council have jointly written to 30,000 local residents and businesses to tell them about the work and diversionary routes.
About Network Rail
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.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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