NETWORK RAIL, WARRINGTON BRIDGE

TIME PRESSURES OVERCOME FOR RAIL BRIDGE INSTALLATION

While every bridge installation is different, our range of experience working with road and rail network clients means we can build in all kinds of efficiencies. We also have to overcome diverse challenges, and very few of us were prepared to handle a pandemic – but with multi-disciplined teams, we can always be flexible and, in 2021, we still managed to carry out nemrous installations for Network Rail as the end client.

Osprey’s heavy lift team has undertaken rail installations for a wide variety of clients including Alun Griffiths, J. Murphy & Sons, Dyer and Butler, and BAM Nuttall. This is a brief synopsis of our work at Warrington Bridge, in May 2021.

WARRINGTON BRIDGE

At Warrington Bank Quay, J Murphy & Sons Limited asked us to support them in the removal of an old railway bridge carrying two railway tracks, and the installation of its replacement. This all had to take place over a Bank Holiday weekend, with minimum disruption to the local community.

Possession timeframes are crucial, not only for commuters and freight linking through these pieces of infrastructure but to other connected works. It means that railway bridge replacement operations need to be planned in detail.

The pandemic was in full flow at this point. Heavy lifts like this one, usually mean that personnel are always working in close proximity, but our QHSE team developed new ways of using mechanical aids – that have since become standard approaches – reducing risks all round. And as well as making sure there was Covid testing on site, more PPE on hand, and time built in for other pandemic precautions, we handed back on time and on budget.

Our teams have a collaborative ethos from the outset. Everyone on site is flexible, and this often comes through in the commendations we get from clients, praising our teamwork.