PERMANENT WAY
Line speed across Arnside Viaduct in Cumbria should soon be restored to 60mph following a huge track replacement project this summer. RTM heard more from Network Rail’s Rhiannon Henshaw.
budget would have provoked incredulity, but recently the industry does seem to be upping its game – and this summer has added another success story to the list.
T
Arnside Viaduct in Cumbria, which carries the Carnforth & Whitehaven line over the estuary of the River Kent, needed a com- plete refurbishment, including the laying of 102 new decks – 51 in each direction – to bring its load capacity and line speed back to where they needed to be.
The line was closed while the works took place to the 155-year-old structure between March and July, but despite numerous pro- visions being in place for night working and special extensions to cram the work in if it fell behind schedule, it was actually fi nished ahead of the original completion date.
Weather watchers
Rhiannon Henshaw, project manager for Network Rail, who spoke to RTM ear- lier this year as the viaduct replacement scheme was starting, updated us now that it is all completed.
She said: “It went really well. Because of the weather, we did have about fi ve days
66 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 11
here was a time when a rail project coming in ahead of time and under
when we had to completely shut down the site because it just wasn’t safe for any of the guys to go onto the viaduct. That was right at the beginning, about a week into the main possession, then we had another two days in the middle, sometime in May, where we had to shut down the site due to high winds. Other than that, the weather was kind to us.
“We also had a setting out issue with the placing of the deck, but that was resolved within 24 hours. That could have been a major issue, but with the right people on site, it was resolved within a matter of hours which was good.”
“Other than that, there were very few is- sues. That enabled us to complete almost a fortnight before the end of the possession. May Gurney and Mabey Bridge worked really well and I look forward to working again with them soon. We didn’t need to do any night working, or even use Sunday working. We gained enough time during the nice weather and when it was going well that we pulled enough time back to not have to use those options that were avail- able to us.”
Speedy working Passenger services have been subject to a
long-term TSR of 30mph, and freight ser- vices to 20mph, and now there is fi nally the prospect of this being lifted.
Henshaw explained: “We are currently look- ing at raising the line speed back to its origi- nal 60mph, and we’re proposing that, if we can get all of the paperwork and processes and timetables in place, for January 2012.”
This would also restore route availability from RA8 back up to RA10.
The technique used during the track re- placement was heavily modelled on that used for the Leven Viaduct, also in Cum- bria. It involved site compounds being set up at either end of the viaduct, with the old material taken away in one direction and the new decks brought in from the other. The team worked on one line at a time, removing the tracks to expose the viaduct decks, which were cut into sections, lifted out by road/rail machines and taken away.
Gantry cranes then moved along the via- duct lifting the new deck units into posi- tion before base plates were bolted in place to take the new continuously welded track. The line towards Barrow was completed fi rst, then the process was reversed to re- new the viaduct in the Carnforth and Lan- caster direction.
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