A huge bridge structure has been installed in Lichfield to carry HS2 beneath existing railway lines.
A team of 300 contractors have been working to build the 6,200 tonne concrete structure on site over the past six month, before it was slowly driven into place in recent days.
Once operational, the bridge will carry high speed rail services to the south east of Lichfield Trent Valley station underneath the current tracks.
The installation was carried out during a nine-day closure of the West Coast Main Line for track replacement and signalling upgrades.
The work also coincided with the removal of the upper platform at Lichfield Trent Valley Station.
While a long term replacement will be installed over the Christmas period, a temporary footbridge has been craned into place to ensure passengers can access platforms one and two.
It means that no trains will run on the Cross City Line until 27th December with rail replacement buses linking the station with Lichfield City until then.
Dave Penney, Network Rail passenger director for the North West and Central region, said:
“We know this work has meant longer journeys for passengers travelling over the school summer holidays, so I’d like to thank everyone impacted for bearing with us while we carried essential upgrades.
“We worked closely with train operators to keep people on the move, and now work is complete on the Trent Valley line, this vital section of the West Coast Main Line will continue to deliver safe, reliable journeys for passenger and freight services.”
Dave Penney, Network Rail
Passengers are being warned that some disruption will also take place on Sunday (30th July) when additional works take place. People can check their journeys at www.nationalrail.co.uk.
It might be of some interest to know that…Whitehill’s major projects body has given HS2 an “unachievable” rating.
The Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA) gave a red rating to phase one and 2a in its report on 20th July 2023. The chief executive, Mark Thurston, resigned from the project on 13th. July 2023.
All this for a train service that isn’t even going to stop in Lichfield. All the trees and hedgerows lost. Compulsory purchase of people’s homes.
If you haven’t been down Cappers Lane recently I would invite you to go and have a look for yourselves at the absolute mess this white elephant scheme has made. Now we are told that they have run out of money to pay for it and it will be left for another 2 years before they start work on it again. What a waste of taxpayers money. If this was a proper business where profit were to be made, someone would have to be accountable for the complete waste of money spent, and heads would roll.
The money wasted on this could have been spent on improving the existing rail network we have and investment in the NHS.
As the saying goes “You couldn’t make it up”
Sick and fed up of HS2 and the waste of money.
The devastation caused to the countryside and wildlife is horrendous. They think by planting trees it solves the problem HS2 is causing. No it does not. What HS2 has done is heartbreaking.
The entrance to A38 from Cappers Lane is appalling. CRATERS not potholes. My husband’s car has just had a front nearside road spring replaced because of the state of the roads in Staffordshire. But there is not enough money to fix them all.
The waste of our money and creation of massive interest payments for the year to come continues.
My question is why HS2 can’t use a similar solution for the A38 bridge instead of causing months/years of disruption on Lichfields roads?
Theres alot of mardy moaners on here, i bet all the construction workers are grateful for the employment. Keeps people off the dole.