Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

Another update posted a couple of days ago...
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/unify/

 

The article in the Rail Engineer states that speeds of up to 75mph are allowed for testing purposes. Is this correct, as I was under the impression that the dispensation only allowed speeds of up to 60mph?

 

I think it's 60 for steam

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Yep, I understand it's 60mph for steam and 75mph for diesels.

Here's a video of the Peak D123 doing some 75mph brake testing...

 

Morning All,
I was wondering if there was anywhere that provided a breakdown of how much each of the elements of phase 1 had cost i.e Bridge, Abutments etc
I have had a quick look at this thread and the offical website with no joy....

 

Bearing in mind commercial contractors are involved, I would think that such a breakdown might be considered as 'Commercial in Confidence' and unlikely to be put into the public domain. Out of curiosity what is your interest in such a breakdown of the costs?

 

I was wondering if there was anywhere that provided a breakdown of how much each of the elements of phase 1 had cost i.e Bridge, Abutments etc
I have had a quick look at this thread and the offical website with no joy...

James. Not seen anything that gives a total breakdown, which is not surprising as a full design has not been completed and all permissions , agreements etc are not yet in place.
The bridge over the MML construction cost is just under £2m (from GCRs accounts) plus additional piling works. The bridge over the canal refurbishment has been costed at £400,000 and is subject to a recently launched appeal. Also a substantial sum has already been spent on surveys, design work, legal work etc etc.

 

Evening,

The reason was just pure curiosity on my part about the cost of physically constructing the steel deck and abutments. Over recent years many railways (NYMR, WHR, RVR) have built new bridges and it is just interesting to see what the replacement cost is compared to typical repair cost.


James Buckley

 

Given that the bridge was completely missing there was only one option in this case!

 

But on the other hand there was a second-hand deck available.

 

In some respects, this would be cheaper - no old deck to get out of the way first! However, I believe the abutments needed at least major work if not building from scratch on one side, so it is 'swings and roundabouts'.

The actual beams and decking units can be quite 'cheap' (I seem to recall the basic beams for Bridge 30 were under £100k but were probably around 10% of the total project costs including associated trackwork). In this case, installation would be the main cost I suspect - not least NwR possessions.

I was once told by someone who knows that certain bridges were just 'little bridges - around £100k to replace'!

Steven

 

True, but not long enough to reach across in one span, and the second-hand decks are planned to be used on the 'gap' job anyway.

 

As a further observation, I understand that once the bridge is complete it will be handed over to Network Rail who will then take on responsibility for its maintenance. Having a new bridge to a NR standard design therefore makes sense.

 

The GCR is very much on the ball as far as fundraising. There is a specific £475,000 appeal now for the canal bridge to be restored this Autumn and inspired by the reality of the Midland Mainline bridge installation I have just made a substantial donation (>1/1000 of the cost). This is not to boast (I'm very lucky to be in this position due to an inheritance) but to encourage others who can afford to donate to do so. This project can come to fruition sooner rather than later if the donations keep flowing.

 

Here I will share to you one of the most recent videos of the GCR concerning the planning and the future developments required for reunification.


It's really interesting to see they use the world wide (I think I have to exlude to somehow the states, because they're still performing well in their way of exeptionalism) understandable SI system (metric system) in most of the given information and probably also for construction, although they give the total length in nostalgic miles. For every engineer it's real headache but at least we do now have the information how the whole embankment will look like in about a decade time(or maybe even a bit less).

Cheers!

 

£40K raised so far towards the canal bridge refurbishment.......
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/unify/index.php
There is a Match Funding scheme taking place in March, as shown on that page.

 

A couple of photos taken in February have been added on this site, showing the bridge over the MML fairly well completed and the abutments now clad in blue bricks...
http://www.gcrleicester.info/html/bridging_the_gap.html#Latest

 

The latest edition of the FoGCML magazine Main Line, which arrived yesterday, has a 3 page article on the changes necessary to link the "Gap" section to Loughborough station, including a rebuilt loco shed/workshops on its existing location. Looks like double track is planned to extend north of the canal bridge area, passing by the shed on its western side .

 

The GCR Leicester website has been upgraded this month with an extended section on the "Gap" project...
http://www.gcrleicester.info/html/bridging_the_gap.html

 

'Match funding March' for the canal bridge fund is drawing to a close, I've just donated and with gift aid *and* match funding my donation is worth about 2.5x the amount I paid. Get in there now, 2 days to go!