Vital work is to be carried out at Werrington by Network Rail, to connect a new 11,000-tonne tunnel north of Peterborough to the already established railway. The project will allow slower moving freight trains to use the popular passenger route.
The project is part of the £1.2bn East Coast Upgrade, and other major work has already been carried out, transforming the track layout and reopening a tunnel at King’s Cross, allowing trains to access and leave the station with ease.
Engineers installed the world’s longest single underground jacked structure – an 11,000-tonne curved concrete box - last January. Since, crucial work has been ongoing to install around 4km of track inside the innovative tunnel, on top of signalling equipment, without any disruption to train services.
An essential part of the project, connecting the new track to the existing Stamford lines, will be carried out on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 July.
Over the weekend, services will continue running for passengers on the East Coast Main line, but a part of the line between Peterborough and Stamford will close to allow teams to safely connect the tracks.
Principal Programme Sponsor for Network Rail’s East Coast Upgrade, Ed Akers, said: “We used challenging industry leading techniques to push the tunnel into place and our teams have continued to work around the clock to install the new track without impacting on services.
“This work to connect the tunnel to the existing lines is only possible when there are no trains running on this section of the route. We’ve carefully planned the work and have bus replacements in place to keep passengers moving. We want to thank people for their patience whilst this vital stage of the project is carried out.”
Work on the dive-under is due to be finished over the summer, ready for train services to use it later this year.
