09.09.16
Severn Tunnel gears up for ‘iconic’ six-week electrification work
Network Rail engineers are gearing up for a six-week closure of the 130-year-old Severn Tunnel from Monday (12 September) in order to prepare it for electrification.
During the closure, 200 engineers will work “day and night” in the tunnel to install over eight miles of electrical equipment, which will be used to power a brand new fleet of trains.
This comes after around 3,500 hours of preparatory work already completed ahead of the closure, including removing 40 tonnes of soot that had built up in the tunnel, inspecting brick work, removing four miles of redundant cable, drilling over 12,000 holes using a custom-made drilling rig, and installing over 6,000 cable cleats.
In the latest edition of RTM, Brian Paynter and Daniel De Luca, Network Rail’s head of programme, planning and integration and project manager, respectively, went into greater detail about this preparatory work in an exclusive interview just shortly before a piece of enabling work carried out during the August bank holiday.
Great Western Railway’s (GWR’s) development manager for Wales, Mark Youngman, said today that electrifying the tunnel plays a “vital part” in modernising the railway between South Wales and the capital.
Andy Thomas, route managing director for Network Rail Wales, also called the project “iconic” and said it marks a “major milestone in the delivery of electric trains to Cardiff by 2019”.
Thomas continued: “There are significant long-term benefits including faster, greener, more frequent trains as well as boosting economic growth in South Wales thanks to better connectivity to and from London, a critical factor for attracting inward investment.
“Wales is open to passengers and freight traffic during this essential upgrade but we are urging people to plan their journey ahead.”
GWR has been working closely with Network Rail and councils in Wales and along the affected route to ensure minimum disruption to the network.
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