LIFTING EQUIPMENT
The reconstruction of four rail bridges in north east London in the autumn required some deft lifting work, the relocation of some residents, and an awful lot of engineering prowess across four tight possession windows. RTM speaks to Network Rail’s scheme project manager Jagjit Singh.
F
our weak bridges on the Gospel Oak to Barking line from north to east Lon-
don had to be replaced last year to ensure Network Rail met its licence obligations, as the 120-year-old structures did not meet the published RA of the route.
Although all four – at Vansittart Road, Pe- vensey Road, Thorpe Road and Skeltons Lane – were identical structurally, making the work simpler than it may have been, they are also all located in residential areas with very dense housing.
This made the communications and public relations aspects of the work as big a chal- lenge as the engineering, according to Net- work Rail’s scheme project manager Jagjit Singh, who said: “We wanted to maintain a good working relationship with the resi- dents, especially when we were doing lift- ing work over their private property.”
Preparatory works started on site in 46 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 12
February 2010, by which time residents had already had extensive information on the upcoming works and the fact that some of them were to be relocated to hotels if they chose, because of the noisy demolition and construction works.
Following enabling works to extend the bridges’ abutments, on Network Rail land, the main works were done over four con- secutive weekends in September and Octo- ber, with three possessions of 52 hours and a final one of 28 hours, during which the tracks were welded and stressed.
Singh said: “The methodology was the same for all the bridges, because all four structures were very similar – in fact they were exactly the same in terms of their con- struction.
“The main challenge was the location of the bridges. They were located in residen- tial areas, with houses very close by. That created a number of issues, for instance the piling works that had to be done to extend the abutments. The piling works were done at once, and as part of that we had to do a condition survey on all the houses.
“We also had to use cranes to do lifting over
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