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FEATURE
Christmas and COVID
yet the work goes on…
NIGEL WORDSWORTH
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has been a two-edge sword for the railway industry. The disease itself has been dreadful, with a number of railway workers and tens of thousands of the population dying from it and many
times more infected to a varying degree. Words cannot express how we all feel about the devastation this disease has caused.
Yet the effect of the pandemic - the lockdown and people being told not to travel - has assisted the railway infrastructure companies. Total line closures, unpopular at any time, have been possible without major disruption - the few passengers travelling were easily handled by bus. So major works have been planned in a hurry (Kilsby tunnel), and the occasional overrun (Gypsy Patch Bridge) has been largely forgiven. It’s a strange time. Normally, on a busy railway, the total closedown of the network on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and the sparsity of passengers over the rest of the period, makes the Christmas and New Year holiday a popular time to catch up on heavy maintenance and renewals. This last holiday was no exception. Despite COVID, social distancing and strict hygiene regimes, £137 million of engineering work was delivered from the evening of Wednesday 23 December 2020 to the early hours of Monday 4 January 2021. Teams of engineers worked in over 4,500 worksites across more than 1,700 possessions, delivering major enhancements as well as core renewals and maintenance works across the rail network. Of these, 48 projects, delivering infrastructure through a total of 84 worksites, were identified as RED through the Delivering Work Within Possessions (DWWP) standard, therefore carrying a greater risk of overrun and/or a more significant impact in the event of an overrun. Major projects included: » Large-scale Switches & Crossings (S&C) renewals at Nine Elms Jcn, St Johns Jcn, Cardiff West Jcn, Bristol East Jcn & Cadder Jcns; » Plain line track renewals at Cheddington, Stechford, Ardwick and Balshaw Lane within the North West & Central Region, Paddington within the Western Region and Pollokshields
Rail Engineer | Issue 188 | Jan-Feb 2021
East (Scotland); » Significant multi-disciplinary works at King’s Cross as part of the King’s Cross Remodelling scheme; » Continuation of a number of large enhancement schemes, including Leeds station, Werrington Dive Under, Euston HS2 Enabling Works and the new Brent Cross station; » Structures, OLE and drainage renewal schemes at multiple locations across the network employing a variety of methodologies to renew aging assets and improve journeys for passengers and freight. They all went almost without a hitch. In total, 17 out of the 1,705 possessions overran, a total of one per cent. These included: » Eastern region - Postwick Bridge (Anglia). An overrun of 714 minutes occurred after Storm Bella delayed the bridge installation on 26/12. This risk and potential overrun was understood prior to Christmas so arrangements were put in place to accommodate this with support from Greater Anglia. The condition of the structure meant that this work had to be completed. » Eastern region - Barking Riverside (Anglia). An overrun of 237 minutes occurred following some specific design issues relating to an individual track circuit. » Eastern region - Brent Cross (East Midlands). An overrun of 68 minutes occurred during the partial handback on 28 December due to remedial work required upon the OLE equipment (one empty stock move was affected).
