Thursday 5 Oct 2017
Railway upgrade will improve Newport viaduct
- Region & Route:
- Wales & Western: Wales & Borders
- | Wales & Western
Network Rail is carrying out improvement work to the River Usk Viaduct in Newport as part of the Railway Upgrade Plan which will help accommodate growing passenger numbers.
Bill Kelly, chief operating officer for Network Rail in Wales, said: “The railway is vital to economic growth. Our essential renewal work to the River Usk Viaduct will ensure it remains safe and reliable long into the future.
“I would like to thank the local community for their patience while we carry out this work as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan and reassure them that we are doing all we can to keep disruption to a minimum.”
The improvement work to the viaduct, which carries the South Wales Mainline across the River Usk in Newport, includes grit blasting, painting and structural repairs. The upgrade work started in May and is scheduled to be finished during spring 2018.
In order to access the viaduct safely, traffic management will need to be put in place on the southbound carriageway of Malpas Road (B4591), with the outer lane closing from 9 October until 10 December.
A large amount of the work must be carried out while trains are not running, with the majority of improvements being made during the night and at weekends.
Network Rail is doing everything possible to minimise the impact on the local community by carrying out the work as quickly and safely as possible.
For more information, please telephone our 24-Hour National Helpline on 03457 11 41 41 or email us at CRWales@networkrail.co.uk
Contact information
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03457 11 41 41
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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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