RAILWAY BRIDGES LOOK TEN YEARS YOUNGER (WEST COUNTRY)

Thursday 11 Sep 2008

RAILWAY BRIDGES LOOK TEN YEARS YOUNGER (WEST COUNTRY)

Region & Route:: | Wales & Western: Wales & Borders; | Southern: Wessex; | Wales & Western; | Southern

The South West of England have received a cash injection of more than £3.6m from Network Rail to makeover five unsightly railway bridges. These bridges, which have been blighted by graffiti, fly posters and pigeons, will be thoroughly cleaned and re-painted to bring them back to their former splendour.

The railway bridges are located in Bristol, Exeter, Gloucester and Swindon.

Decades of dirt, grime and graffiti will be blasted away using specialist high-powered equipment, and masonry and brick work will be re-grouted before these bridges are given a fresh lick of paint.

Chris Fuoco, area general manager, Network Rail says: “The facades of these bridges have been hard done by years of exposure to weather and abuse by graffiti and fly-posters. With this initiative, we will be able to make them look new again and give the surroundings a pleasant feel.

“In order to carry out this work safely and effectively, we will have to implement temporary road closures at some of the sites and we do apologise for that inconvenience.

“We have been working very closely with the relevant authorities to provide diversionary routes and public are welcome to contact our helpline 08457 114 141 or the local highway authorities for assistance on the changes”

Work has started at Swindon and will soon begin in Exeter. Some lanes at M5 (near junction 30) in Exeter will be closed from 20 September to 30 November 2008 to facilitate the work. Parts of M4 (at junction 19) will also be closed as work continues on next year at Bristol. Details on the temporary changes will be available from the relevant local highway authorities.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -Western route
MediaRelationsWestern@networkrail.co.uk

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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