Vital freight line secured with essential repairs to Aire Bridge

Network Rail has begun essential work on a £2.1million project to repair Aire Bridge in the south of North Yorkshire.

The track over the bridge is used exclusively by freight services travelling to and from Drax Power Station, which supplies around 11 percent of the UK’s renewable electricity, and needs to be replaced so that services can continue to use the line reliably for years to come.

Network Rail engineers will remove the existing track and replace it with new sleepers and ballast – beams and stones which improve drainage and support the track – and new rails.

Structural repairs will also be carried out and a waterproofing layer will be added to reduce the amount of maintenance work needed in the future.

To carry out this work safely, the bridge will be closed every Saturday night between Sunday 11 July and Sunday 17 October, with most of the work taking place during a nine-day closure from Friday 27 August to Sunday 5 September.

Hirst Road level crossing, between Carlton and Hirst Courtney, will also be closed on these dates to allow Network Rail vehicles to access the area.

A signed diversionary route will be in place.

Mark Gibbens, Head of Logistics at Drax, said: “This work is vital to safeguard the future of this important infrastructure. Network Rail have worked closely with Drax to minimise the disruption this work will have on the power station and we don’t anticipate any unplanned disruption to supplies.”