Holiday work

The UK railway network shuts down for 48 hours over Christmas, on 25 and 26 December, offering a window of opportunity for Network Rail's engineering department to undertake all manner of tasks that trains, timetables and passengers would normally inhibit, writes Mike Ponsonby.

Christmas Day 2011 was no exception. The 100 metre-long pedestrian bridge at the north end of Birmingham New Street Station (BNS) had to be modified to proceed with the UK£ 450 million (US$ 693 million) Gateway Project. It involves complete rebuilding of this station by 2015.

To lift the bridge Belgium-based international lifting and transport specialist Sarens used a 700 tonne capacity Demag AC 700 telescopic wheeled mobile crane. It stood on Hill Street with the boom at a shallow angle across BNS to reach the mid-point of the bridge. The lifting frame and wire rope slings were attached to the steel bridge sections for the main lift in the middle of the night.

While this was going on, a 500 tonne capacity Liebherr telescopic mobile crane from Ainscough, the UK's largest crane rental company, was rigged crossways on a sloping street. It stood on a temporary roadway made of interlocking aluminium panels overlaying a large area of timber mats at the Junction of Ethel Street and Pinfold Street.

The job was to lift new structural steelwork into the north end of platform 1 for a new accommodation block. Previously this end of the platform was devoid of buildings.

A 250 tonne capacity Terex AC 250 all terrain from crane rental company Bronzeshield was also used. It stood on Station Street and lifted out the old unused steel framework from the southern pedestrian exit of BNS, which was then cut up in the middle of Station Street and loaded into 44 tonne articulated tipper trucks, waiting to take it away for scrap.

Hundreds of people and dozens of machines were involved in the engineering task, which cost many millions of pounds. All the engineering work was completed without incident, on time and within budget.