Carters Bridge
UK, Wigan
Project synopsis
Design of permanent and temporary works for replacement to rail overbridge.
Contractor
J. Murphy and Sons
End client
Network Rail
Awards
ICE North West 2017 – Small & Medium Project of the Year Winner
Tony Gee designed the replacement structure for Carters Bridge, which connects two areas of a farmer's land. The initial solution required extensive temporary works and maximised disruption to the farmer's business, as it would have required a 10 week closure of the bridge.
We developed an alternative 39m single span steel composite solution constructed parallel to the existing bridge. This minimised the disruption to the farmer as the new bridge could be built whilst maintaining access using the old bridge.
The area was historically exploited extensively for coal mining due to the low lying Pennine coal measures. We procured and managed a deep borehole site investigation and liaised with Network Rail’s Coal Mining Engineer to agree a spread foundation solution on the top of the railway cutting.
We designed the weathering steel main beams to be lifted into place with the stringcourse and aluminium parapet in place. This removed the requirement for temporary works over the railway during construction and significantly improved safety on site.