Concrete components that will form a new 拢20m railway bridge and roundabout in Stockport are now travelling over the Irish sea ready for the project鈥檚 main construction phase next week.
Network Rail and engineers from its contractor Murphy are gearing up for a planned three-week window during which Greek Street bridge is dismantled and rebuilt.
It will see a 50-mile stretch of the West Coast Main Line closed for 21 days from Saturday 2nd August until the morning of Saturday 23rd August while the civil engineering takes place.
With trial assemblies complete at a manufacturing facility 35 miles northeast of Dublin, the bridge components are now being transported on the back of 40 lorries and low-loaders, travelling by ferry from Dublin to Liverpool and then by road to Stockport.
Some of the bridge sections are being stored near Trafford Park, while others will arrive straight to site in special convoys ready to be immediately craned into position.
Construction involves large cranes and careful choreography to tight timescales, so the learning from the tests in Ireland has been vital.
Network Rail project manager William Brandon said: 鈥淎fter years of planning we鈥檙e excited that this weekend all our preparations will be put into action, so we can successfully rebuild Greek Street railway bridge and improve both the road and rail network for the future for both road users and passengers.鈥�
Murphy senior engineering manager Paul Williams added: 鈥淐ompleting the construction 鈥榙ress rehearsal鈥� enabled us to fully test our installation methodology prior to installing the new Greek Street bridge for real. As a result of this test, we changed the sequence in which we鈥檒l crane the sections into position in order to maximise the efficiency of our works during the closure.鈥�
As well as the 拢20m investment to replace Greek Street railway bridge, Network Rail is using the railway closure between Saturday 2nd and Saturday 23rd August to carry out an additional 拢23m of further improvements to the West Coast Main Line between Stafford and Stockport.
This work includes:
- strengthening and waterproofing River Trent Viaduct in Stone
- work to upgrade the power supply to overhead lines in Stockport
- track renewals in Stone, Hixon and Congleton
- railway point replacement in Macclesfield
- platform work at Poynton station
- railway drainage upgraded at Trentham
- a new footbridge at Longport station.
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