Balfour Beatty Rail celebrates successful delivery of Christmas works

As ever, up and down the country, Balfour Beatty Rail worked around the clock over the Christmas period to deliver Network Rail’s enhancements. The major pieces of work were:

Romford – Gidea Park

A complex plain line track renewal of 1,280 yards between Romford and Gidea Park Stations (Essex) was delivered. Over the 74 hour possession period the team removed nearly 200 old track panels, excavated over 7,200 tonnes of spent ballast and relayed over 2,700 sleepers and 1,768 yards of track.

Ramsgate Remodelling

Ten sets of new points with over 80 panels were installed and more than 230 track welds and over 56 hours of track tamping took place.

Paisley Corridor

Finished Permanent Way and OLE works over a 129 hour blockade to complete the much needed improvements on one of the country’s biggest rail bottlenecks.

Birmingham Gateway

Piling for superstructures to the new concourses was safely and successfully completed over a 54 hour possession. All equipment and materials were brought into Europe’s largest and busiest underground station by rail and the challenges of bored piling through station platforms and years of buried old railway infrastructure were overcome.

Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace Capacity Improvements Project

Installed the first DV crossover on the Down Line near Finsbury Park to facilitate the line speed enhancements to achieve the forecast growth requirements.. The Kirow crane installed 16 panels of Switch and Crossings and Plain Line at Finsbury Park over a total of four shifts. During the New Year’s possession, the OLE team finalised the installation of the new equipment and the P-Way welding works.

Newhill and Leathern Bottle

A 55 hour blockade on the Great Western Main Line, with the demolition of two twin span Overbridges at Leathern Bottel near Goring (45m 66ch) & Newhill in Purley on Thames (39m 46ch). Activities involved installation of track protection beneath the bridges, excavators demolished the structures and 1100 tonnes of arisings were removed for each structure.

Nuneaton North Chord

Two new Switch and Crossing sections were installed on the Down Slow West Coast Main Line where the proposed Chord will join with the Up Arley Line. The works were completed on programme by Birse Rail and BB Regional Civil Engineering JV in a 54 hour possession.

Royston Underpass

A 52 hour possession to drive in a 40 tonne concrete box underpass into an excavation of 1,000m3 in rock chalk beneath twin tracks.

Sandhills Lane, Liverpool

Replacement of an 1881 bridge spanning 23metres and weighing 450 tonnes. After months of planning and preparation including 30m long ground anchors to support the abutments and temporary footbridges, the 103 hour possession was completed on programme, safely.

Walsall and Cannock

Supervising other contractors as the Principal Contractor, a significant milestone of Sectional Completion on the first major section of the works was achieved enabling Invensys to start the signalling works on time and in the week before the break installed signal foundations and signal superstructures to pave the way for the next Sectional Completion in February.

Clapham

In addition, the Balfour Beatty Rail NDT & Welding team responded to a late request for the ultrasonic and magnetic particle inspection of rail welds at Clapham on Christmas day!