Bridge reconstruction completed - with an hour to spare!

Months of planning culminated in an early possession hand back, when the rail bridge over Whitehall Road (in the centre of Leeds) was successfully replaced over the early Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

The bridge forms part of a broad portfolio of structures cared for by May Gurney under the LNE Structures and Civils Framework Contract, which is managed out of Rail Services' York office.

The project included weeks of meticulous preparation, followed by fabrication and trial assembly of the bridge at the welders in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The bridge was then shipped to Whitehall Road for installation.

On the evening of Friday 28 April the road below the bridge was closed. The project team laid timber mats to protect the buried services beneath the footway, in preparation for the demolition of the old redundant bridge.

The following day the new bridge, which had been erected in an adjacent compound during the week leading up to the 54-hour possession, was transported onto the road ready to be moved into position on the abutments on the Sunday.

The delivery team took possession of the track at midnight on Saturday and began removing the track from the bridge. On Sunday morning the team worked to 'free up' the old bridge, which was removed by 11.00am, and then taken the site compound for demolition at a later date.

Demolition of the abutments and the laying of the concrete screed concluded later in the day, and in the early evening the new bridge was carefully moved into position. Less than an hour later, the replacement bridge was lowered onto the new abutments.

Work continued through the night to complete drainage and backfilling and by Monday the installation of the ballast and track was complete. The bridge was handed back to Network Rail, an hour early, during the small hours of Tuesday 2 May.

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