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Spectators
Watch As Bridge Goes In
Surrey Mirror
12th January 2005
The long-awaited
underbridge that will eventually give access to the Holmethorpe
industrial estate and the new 500-home
Mere Park housing estate,
has gone in.
About a dozen spectators turned up to watch as the 1,650 tonne
concrete box bridge, travelling at one mile an hour, was edged into
a gap cut into the railway embankment.
It had taken about 20 years of negotiations and planning, and the
scheme, costing Linden Homes £10m, had reached a critical milestone.
Catherine and Malcolm Walker, from Linkfield Lane, Redhill, were
there to watch.
Mr Walker, a builder, said: "It was absolutely brilliant, a
wonderful piece of technology and workmanship. It's going to make a
lot of difference to the area."
Clive Robinson, 37, from Colesmead Road, Redhill, said: "I wanted to
see the bridge being moved into position."I saw it being built from
the beginning and it's just a fascinating piece of engineering."
The operation took place on Boxing Day.The main contractor for the
bridge project was Hochtief (UK) Construction Ltd.
Andrew Richards, director, spoke of the challenge they faced. He
said: "We had 102 hours in which to cut away the embankment,
position the bridge, infill the embankment, reinstall the track and
rail lines, and reroute the signals and power cables. "It was a
great challenge and, in my opinion, a spectacular
achievement."Construction of the estate access road will start in
February.
The Bridge so Far
Surrey Mirror
16th December 2004
The Bridge, part of the new Holmethorpe
Regeneration Programme, is now ready to be moved into place over the
Christmas period.
The installation is scheduled to begin very late on Christmas Eve,
continuing until dawn on Wednesday 29th December, although if any
unforeseen problems are encountered, the operation may take an extra
day.
Close to the bridgeworks there will be floodlights, and some
unavoidable noise may be experienced, as well as earthworks traffic.
In the region of 25 households in the immediate area have accepted
Linden Homes invitation of alternative accommodation for the
duration of the necessary work.
As from Christmas Eve they will move to the Copthorne Hotel for five
nights, and each family will also receive £250 spending money.
The earthworks programme will consist of the removal of 34,000 tons
in the space of four days, and in the interest of health and safety
some parts of Battlebridge Lane, Frenches Road (north of Trowers
Way) Trowers Way and Ormside Way will be closed to thorough traffic.
Parking and waiting will be restricted, although buses, residents
and pedestrians will be allowed through. Advance warning signs and
diversionary routes have been posted in the immediate area.
After Christmas there will be some unusual works taking place on
Sunday January 2 and Sunday January 9, but these will be no more
intrusive than previous.
The road closures will end on Thursday December 30, but return in
Mid January.
This further restriction will leave Fairhaven Road closed at its
eastern end, and Frenches Road closed (except for buses and access
for residents) from the Jolly Brickmakers pub to the junction with
Battlebridge Lane.
Battlebridge Lane will remain open (with traffic control) while
services and traffic signals are installed. This second phase of the
programme will remain in operation until the new relief road is
opened in the summer of 2005.
Anyone with questions about the overall programme may contact the
24-hour helpline on 08700 781000.
January 2003 saw the
plans for a much needed relief road into the Holmethorpe Industrial
Estate come under public scrutiny. This immediately brought fervent
opposition from South Merstham residents to sections of the
proposals for the new road.
Those who saw the plans, which had been released by Surrey County
Council for public consultation, were dismayed at some of the
aspects of the report. They considered them to not only be
detrimental to South Merstham’s community, but also cause an
unnecessary diversion for residents travelling to Redhill making
them travel via New Battlebridge Lane and onto the already busy A23
Holmethorpe work has started
News bulletin dated 9 September 2004
about the Holmethorpe Regeneration Project taking place in Redhill.
Work on the long-awaited regeneration of Holmethorpe has begun.
The
regeneration includes :-
• Building a new road to stop heavy lorries using residential roads
to access Holmethorpe Industrial Estate;
• Building a new housing development, to be named Mere Park,
providing over 400 new homes. Mere Park, which is funding the new
road, will provide a mix of housing of which 30 percent will be
social and starter housing.
• Major environmental improvements including provision of public
open space and a creation of a wetland bird nature reserve.
• Closure of the quarry and sand drying plant in 2005 which will
considerably reduce air pollution and sand lorry movements in the
area.
The Council and the developers working on the project have made a
huge effort to ensure that the work causes the least possible
inconvenience to residents.
Due to the logistics of the project, the work will have an impact on
the lives of some residents living in the immediate vicinity, and we
have written to those residents explaining exactly what is happening
and why.
We have also set up a 24 hour information line to answer all
residents' queries.
New rail underbridge
From now until January 2005 a new bridge under the Redhill line is
being built to take the new road from Ormside Way (on Holmethorpe
industrial estate) to Frenches Road.
This work will be a major construction project, and the safety of
the railway is of paramount importance.
It would not be practical to dig through the embankment while the
railway is operational, and to either remove a section of the
embankment to erect the underbridge in situ, or dig a tunnel would
involve a lengthy closure of the rail lines. This would never to
permitted by Network Rail.
The only solution is to build the new underbridge adjacent to the
embankment and then roll it into place.
Noise levels
We are sensitive to the fact that this project is being carried out
close to residential areas and are working with the developers
Linden Homes and their contractors Hochtief to do everything
possible to reduce noise.
The building of the underbridge adjacent to the embankment will not
in itself be noisy.
However, there will have to be some noisy work and regrettably, some
weekend, 24 hour and night-time working. This is so we can access
the railway when the trains aren’t operating.
Information
about the schedule of works due to take place at Holmethorpe
industrial estate.
The main
elements of the installation of the under bridge connecting Frenches
Road and Ormside Way are described below together with dates that
the work will occur.
The only Sunday working in the
period up to Christmas will be on Sunday 26 September and Sunday 5
December. At Christmas there will be continuous working from Friday
24 to the morning of Wednesday 29 December.
There will some Saturday working
with the remainder of the work being weekday working.
Construction
of an Access Ramp
An access
ramp is to be constructed on the Eastern side of the rail line (next
to Ormside Way on the Holmethorpe Industrial Estate) to allow heavy
machinery and materials to reach the top of the embankment as the
embankment itself is too steep.
The ramp is made from graded
stone that is brought in by road and gradually compacted.
Date of work
Cable
Diversion
The power
cable runs alongside the rail line on the Frenches Road side of the
site. A temporary diversion cable will be laid, the existing power
cable cut and then the supply connected to the diversion cable.
This work method is permitted by
Network Rail.
Date of work
Building a
Track and Signal Cable Suspension Bridge
During the
Christmas period the rail line and a stretch of embankment will be
removed. Network Rail do not permit the track and signalling cable
that runs alongside the rail line to be moved and so this must
remain in place.
The cabling cannot support its
own weight when the embankment is removed so a temporary suspension
bridge will be constructed to support it.
This will comprise two towers
between which a suspension cable is slung that will hold the track
and signal cables in place.
Date of work
-
Piling:
Sunday 26 Sept (7am to 7pm) then weekdays to 8 Oct 2004.
-
Base
Finishing: 7-15 Oct 2004
-
Erect
cable bridge: Sunday 5 December 2004
Building the
New Bridge
Reinforcement
bars are fixed into place to form the skeleton of the bridge around
which plywood is placed to contain and provide shape to the concrete
when it is poured in.
The plywood is open at the top to
allow for the pouring of concrete. The concrete is brought in by
road and placed in a skip which is lifted by crane over the opening.
The concrete is released into the
plywood shuttering through a door in the base of the skip. A
vibrating poker is used to consolidate the concrete. The bridge is
formed and cast in sections.
Date of work
Installing
the Under Bridge
The under
bridge (which is separate to the cable bridge) will be installed
by removing the rail lines, excavating the embankment, lifting the
concrete box into the gap, rebuilding the embankment around the
concrete box and then reinstating the rail lines.
Date of work
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