Media centre

Monday 21 Nov 2016

Successful first phase demolition on Station Road bridge

Region & Route:

Scotland’s Railway: Scotland

Network Rail successfully completed the first part of the demolition of the bridge over the railway at Station Road, Shotts over the weekend.

Working continuously from 11pm on Saturday night until 6 am on Monday morning, the demolition team successfully removed the ‘modern’ concrete section of the bridge on the south (station) side of the structure.

Work involved cutting and removing steel and concrete sections and removing them from site before clearing and reinstating the railway in time for normal service to resume for Shotts commuters on Monday morning.

The work is part of the route clearance programme in preparation for electrification of the line by March 2019.  Station Road bridge in Shotts is one of 17 structures that need to be ‘height cleared’ in order to safely run overhead electrification cables as part of the Scottish Government’s investment to upgrade the line.

Michelle McCaig, Network Rail’s structures clearance project manager said, “Work over the weekend with our contractor Bam Nuttall was successfully completed to plan.  The first part of the demolition of the structure marks the start of an intensive phase of work as we prepare for the new bridge construction and ahead of the full demolition in January.

“We understand that elements of this work are unavoidably noisy but this type of heavy engineering cannot be done without some disruption for those living nearby which is unfortunate.  We do what we can to minimise noise from our activities and are grateful for the patience of our lineside neighbours as we carry out this important investment in our railway”.