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Monday 19 Sep 2016

TIMELAPSE-VIDEO: Captures latest milestone in South Wales electrification project

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

A vital milestone in the work to upgrade Bridge Street bridge in Newport city centre, in preparation for a new fleet of electric trains, was completed at the weekend.

Timelapse footage captured the assembly of a 600 tonne crawler crane which was used to lift and install the new bridge deck in the early hours of Saturday morning (17 September).

The installation was a critical milestone in the project to replace the old structure, all part of the preparation work to electrify the South Wales Mainline which will deliver faster, greener, quieter and more reliable train services for the growing number of passengers using the railway.

Karl Gilmore, programme manager at Network Rail said, “The upgrade work we completed this weekend as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan to deliver a bigger, better railway for passengers was focused on five bridges in Cardiff and Newport.

“This work was a crucial element in preparing the South Wales Mainline for electrification and over 100 of our orange army worked day and night to successfully complete all the vital milestones we set out to achieve over this 56 hour period.

“I’d like to thank the local community and passengers for their patience while we carried out this work.”

Over the weekend Maesglas Road Bridge was demolished along with Hawse Lane and Green Lane bridges located in the Marshfield area of Newport as work now commences to reconstruct these bridges.

In Cardiff the main span of Beresford Road Bridge in Splott was demolished and work was also completed in the Cardiff Central area, part of the Cardiff Area Signalling Renewal project to modernise the Cardiff and Valleys railway, to improve reliability of train services.