PERMANENT WAY
Sheer manpower
• During the blockade, staff from Network Rail, May Gurney, and the subcontractors spent 57,444 man hours on site.
• The busiest week came at the end of the project, from July 2-9, when the team spent 4,380 hours on site.
• The maximum number of workers on the viaduct at any time was 61, but was usually around 50. • There were 178 visitors to the site between March and completion in July. • During one week in June, 475 separate people were working on the project.
Some local people and passenger groups had hoped a pedestrian walkway could be fi tted to the bridge. In design terms, this is still possible, but so far no funding has been secured to construct the walkway.
The original budget for the entire project was £12m, but Network Rail and the en- gineers managed to fi nd effi ciencies that drove the fi nal cost down to £10.7m.
Next time
We asked Henshaw whether she now con- sidered the method a proven one that we are likely to see used again, and she said: “I defi nitely think it worked this time, but I think as technology moves on, there’s always going to be improvements. There’s defi nitely other ways it could be imple- mented that could come around. Designers actually came up with several alternatives,
but because of the constraints on site, we decided that using the Leven method was most preferential. But there are defi nitely opportunities to improve the way we im- plemented it, though it certainly worked well for us this time. We also improved on the previous method in terms of timescales for implementation.”
Tributes
But there was one piece of tragic news for the project team, when 33-year-old Gavin Hirst, the senior site agent and an engineer working for May Gurney, sadly died. He was found dead in his lodgings and it is be- lieved he slipped into a diabetic coma, the company said.
John Wilkinson, managing director of rail services for May Gurney, told RTM: “Aside from being a fi rst class engineer he was also
a fi rst class colleague. A warm-hearted per- son full of wit and fun, he was loved by eve- ryone. A great viaduct, replaced by a great man. God rest.”
Henshaw also paid tribute to Gavin Hirst on behalf of Network Rail, saying: “He was inte- gral to the project being the success it was.”
Resumption
The viaduct re-opened fully on July 18. Jo Kaye, Network Rail’s route director, de- scribed the benefi ts for passengers, saying: “The fi rst thing regular passengers will no- tice is how quiet the ride is over the viaduct compared with before. We have taken away the old jointed track and replaced it with continuous rails. Not only is this quieter but it is also makes the ride over the viaduct a lot smoother.”
She said the plans to increase the speed limit should mean increased journey fre- quencies, while Arnside Parish Council expressed its appreciation for the way the work had been carried out, saying: “It has been on time with a minimum of mess and disruption to the village, for which we are grateful.”
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rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 11 | 67
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