Engineering Focus

Manchester's latest Metro line is due to open on Sunday ( 26th Feb ), the line known as Second City Crossing or 2CC will ease congestion through the city centre and allow more services to be routed though Manchester Victoria. Work began on the new line in 2014 and coincided with the rebuilding of Victoria Station, the re-modeling of Metrolink platforms and the tracks leading into the station. A new junction was constructed at the southern entrance to Victoria with the new line leading down Corporation St. The new line begins at Lower Mosley Street, runs through St Peter’s Square, before turning left down Princess Street and then heading along Cross Street and Corporation Street before re-joining the existing line just outside Victoria. Tram stands at the new St Peter's Square platform To accommodate the new line St Peter's Square has been completely remodeled, a third line has been added on Lower Mosley Street and a 3rd platform built at St Peter's Squ...

It has been almost a year since I first wrote about the Ordsall Chord project which once complete will connect Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly stations for the first time. Tuesday ( 21st Feb ) was a particularly important day as the steel arch which will carry part of the chord over the River Irwell was lifted into place. There were plenty of press and media in the area to report on this key milestone. The lift of the 600 tonne arch began at around 5am ( 21st Feb ), it was expected that the lift would commence later however the weather reports coming in showed high winds for later on in the day. The lift viewed from Irwell Street The lift required 2 Liebherr crawler cranes, the smaller of which is rated at 750 tonnes, the other which is also the biggest movable crane in the country is rated at 1350 tonnes. By 10am the arch had been lifted into position over the bridge deck however had not been fully lowered into its final position. At one end of the arch ( pi...

It is widely anticipated that the Bill giving the go ahead to construct the first phase of HS2 between London, Birmingham with a connection to the WCML at Rugeley will receive Royal Assent early this year ( 2017 ). So I thought now would be a good time to take a look at the methods that will likely be used to construct the new railway. Update The bill giving the go ahead to construct phase 1 of HS2 was given Royal Assent on Thursday 23rd of February. This blog will focus solely on the construction and engineering involved, so I will leave a description of project and the political aspects of the planning to one side. To begin with I want to explore how you go about altering the landscape in order to build a new high-speed railway that is as flat and straight as possible. With a maximum design speed of 400km/h (250mph) over the straightest sections of track it is important that the curve radius is long as possible, in the case of HS2 the minimum horizontal radius for 400km/h o...

In part one  of the February update I detailed progress from the M6 junction 19 to the new A50 overbridge and roundabout, in part two I will detail progress from the M56 junction 7 heading south to the new Chapel Lane overbridge.  The new grade separated junction at the M56 junction 7 was one of the largest single elements of the project, requiring the construction of a new overbridge, roundabout, slip roads and refurbishment of the existing bridge over the M56. The new grade separated junction of the M56/A556 interchange was one of the first beneficial elements of the project to open. Now traffic travelling to and from Manchester can avoid the existing flat roundabout which connected the A556 to the A56 westbound to Warrington and northbound to Altrincham New A556 alignment carrying traffic to/from the M56 toward Manchester Looking west towards Manchester from the new bridge over the A556 which connects the  existing roundabout for Altrincham to the ne...

I have been following the A556 project for almost 2 years. from the initial ground works through to construction of new bridges and the road itself. Now the main project to construct the new road is in the final phase of construction and the new A556 alignment is due to open at the end of March. Once the new alignment opens the existing A556 will be detrunked and renamed the  B5569 , the exiting road will provide improved access for local traffic, cyclists and equestrians. Work to detrunk the current A556 is expected to take place between Autumn and Winter 2017. For some background information on the project you can find my first blog from March 2015 here Facts and figures 51,000 vehicles per day currently use the A556 Cost of the project £191.9m A new 7.5km grade separated dual carriageway will be constructed 130,000 tonnes of tarmac used 300 people employed on site at the height of construction 5 new overpasses constructed  The main contractor fo...