Christmas workers ready to finish demolition of the Old Mossband Viaduct near Carlisle
Work will go on over Christmas to finish the demolition of the old Mossband viaduct which carried the A74 over the West Coast railway line.
Giant multi-wheeled transporters will be used to remove the last six bridge sections which lie directly over the railway line.
The bulk of the work is taking place on Christmas Day and Boxing Day when no trains are running. It will be completed by lunch time on Sunday 28 December.
A new viaduct is now carrying traffic over the railway line following the completion of the £174 million M6 Carlisle to Guards Mill extension earlier this month.
Highways Agency project manager David Brindle said:
“This is the final phase of a major engineering project that began in early November. The Highways Agency has worked hard with its partners including Network Rail to ensure that there has been no disruption to rail travellers.
“The final stage of the demolition work is being carried out over the Christmas holiday period when the railway is closed for other engineering works. It will mean Christmas happens on a very complex demolition site for many workers as they complete this technically challenging project.”
The old viaduct was built in the early 1960s. It is five metres high, 250 metres long and 23 metres wide and made of reinforced concrete. It consists of nine 900-tonne bridge sections – the equivalent of 20 fully laden juggernauts – 45 metres long and seven 500-tonne bridge sections 25 metres long.
Work began on the 5.5 mile (9km) M6 Carlisle to Guards Mill Improvement in July 2006 and the road was formally opened by Transport Minister Andrew Adonis on Friday 5 December – the 50th anniversary of the opening of the first motorway in the country, the M6 Preston bypasss.
The scheme replaces the old A74 dual carriageway with a three-lane dual carriageway motorway. This will result in fewer accidents and more reliable journey times on this strategically important section of motorway. A new all purpose road has been built for local traffic.
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