Network Rail has released a new video showing the progress made on the rebuilding of the Bletchley flyover, which is part of the East-West Rail project.
The flyover is a crucial part of connecting Oxford, Bedford and Cambridge for the first time in more than 50 years.
The film shows the impressive engineering project which is still being completed.
Early May saw 103 concrete beams being lifted into place during a closure of the West Coast Main Line.
Two crawler cranes were used to lift the beams into place, taking around 30 minutes each to complete.
The electric cables that power trains had to be dismantled and reinstated under the new flyover before trains could run again.
The old flyover at Bletchley was removed last year.
Incredibly, most of the new structure has been constructed while the railway stayed open so that passengers did not experience disruption.
East-West Rail will bring reliable and quick journeys and affordable travel to the people, making commuting a much more realistic option and serving communities across the area.
Mark Cuzner, East-West Rail Alliance director said: “Bridging the gap over the West Coast mainline for East West Rail has been a critical milestone for the project. It is the culmination of an enormous amount of collaborative effort by the team who have coupled good engineering with innovative thinking to overcome the many challenges posed by this complex piece of work undertaken within the railway corridor.”
“With the beam installation complete, our focus now switches to reconstructing the section of the flyover which will span Buckingham Road, while also completing the new Bletchley High-Level Station which will provide two new platforms to connect East West Rail to the existing Bletchley Station.”
Road closures start next week from Monday the 14th of June 2021 for the next section of the flyover rebuilding work.
Buckingham Road will be shut until the 19th of July 2021 while the construction takes place.
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Network Rail doing what they can do. Including replacing the flyover at Bletchley that crosses over the West Coast Main Line.
This is not “bridging the gap”, this is restoring the flyover – the project is about building a station platforms, and ‘affordable travel’ is not really an objective statement it’s something that only potential passengers can decide – if journeys are affordable – and probably won’t be for some people
Great news ! But it seems utterly insane that this new railway isn’t electrified from the start.