Media centre

Wednesday 21 Dec 2005

RAILWAY IMPROVEMENT WORK TO START IN LICHFIELD

Region & Route:

Work to remove a major bottleneck on a key rail line will soon start in the Lichfield area. As part of the £8bn upgrade of the West Coast main line, the Trent Valley Four Tracking (TV4) project will double the number of tracks to four between Tamworth, Lichfield and Armitage with Handsacre and deliver major improvements for rail users. As well as widening the track, work will be carried out on the bridges that cross the railway to accommodate the additional two tracks. A disused footbridge between Vulcan Road and Netherstowe Lane has already been demolished and the next phase of work includes: · Replacing the footbridge at Vulcan Road. Pedestrian access will be maintained throughout the period of the works which are due to start in January 2006 · Replacing the road bridge at Netherstowe Lane. Again, access will be maintained throughout the period of the works and traffic management measures to help traffic flow will be in place. Construction works will start this month with work taking place on the residential side of the bridge next month · Replacing the footbridge behind Chadswell Heights. There will be no pedestrian access at this point during the works, although there are other accesses across the railway in the area. Works on the removal of the existing structure will start in January 2006 · Work is already underway at Tewnalls Lane and traffic management will remain in place whilst work is carried out to replace the bridge early next year · Traffic management will be in put in place at Watery Lane and minor work will start early next year before the bridge is replaced in spring Senior Programme Manager for TV4, Keith Riley, said: “The work we are carrying out will deliver significant improvements for railway users. Throughout the period of the work we are committed to keeping people fully informed about what we are doing and to ensuring that any impact on the local community is kept to an absolute minimum. “