The project, part of the £63m Glasgow-Barrhead electrification works, will see a new bridge deck constructed higher over the railway to enable overhead electrification wires to run beneath the structure. The old bridge was too low to get catenary under.
Working over two successive weekend possessions, with the railway closed for 53 hours each time, Network Rail contractors, led by Bam Nuttall, demolished and cleared the old bridge before craning into place the first elements of the new structure.
Over the first weekend, 1,100 tonnes of spoil, including seven wrought iron girders, were removed from the railway bridge using a 500-tonne crane. The masonry brick work from the structure will be recycled and reused as cladding.
Over the second weekend, four concrete pre-cast cill beams were craned into position onto the abutments of the former structure using a 750-tonne telescopic crane supplied and operated by Mammoet. These provide the additional height clearance needed for the electrification wires to run under what will also be a thinner bridge deck.
Allan Wilson, Network Rail’s project manager for the Glasgow-Barrhead electrification, said: “Successful demolition of the Nithsdale Road bridge removes a key blocker to the installation of the overhead wires that will enable the electrification of the line to Barrhead by December 2023.
“Closing the railway for consecutive weekends was the most efficient way to remove the structure and then to make good progress in the first stages of the construction of the new bridge by installing cil units on the abutments and the pre-cast beams which will form the framework of the new bridge deck.
“We will have the new deck in place in September and then will begin the process of reconnecting the utilities across the structure with a view to having completed the work and opening the new bridge in January next year.”
In addition to the main bridge works, the team exploited the line closure by also demolishing a smaller structure at Kennishead Road near Darnley and installing an under-track crossing to carry diverted power cables.
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