Major work to replace a Victorian drainage culvert beneath the railway in Aylesbury is now complete to improve future journeys for passengers and freight services.
Impressive aerial footage and photos show how engineers completely dug up the railway by Aylesbury station to replace the drainage system which connects to the nearby canal basin.
Faults found in the structure earlier this year caused repeated short-notice closures of the line and major disruption for passengers.
Now Network Rail has permanently replaced the brick-built culvert with a modern equivalent, trains will be able to run normally in future.
Over a 12 day railway closure, Network Rail worked with its contractor Murphy to:
- Remove track and the old brick-built drainage culvert
- Install a new 18-section pre-cast concrete culvert using a 300 tonne crane
- Replace 700 metres of rail and 85 sleepers
- Upgrade three sets of points which are movable sections of track, allowing trains to move from one line to another.
The railway between Aylesbury Vale Parkway and Amersham reopened to passenger trains over the weekend of 19 August, after the work to remove the damaged brick-built structure and replace it with the new modular pre-cast concrete culvert.
The culvert repair is the first of two major upgrades taking place in Aylesbury this summer with work now underway to allow the new high-speed railway, HS2, to pass under the existing railway between Aylesbury and Little Kimble stations.
In addition to the railway closures, Marsh Lane level crossing is now closed to road users until spring 2024 to allow the major improvement work to take place, as well as a project to upgrade the level crossing in 2024 which will bring it up to modern safety standards.
Patrick Cawley, director for ‘On Network Works’ for Network Rail and HS2, said: “I know our work in Aylesbury has and continues to be extremely disruptive for passengers and I’d like to apologise for this and thank people for their patience while we completed vital repairs which will help to make journeys more reliable.
“Our second phase of work is now underway to prepare for HS2, Britain’s new high speed railway and I’d urge passengers travelling between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough stations to continue to plan their journeys in advance by visiting www.chilternrailways.co.uk/pra.”
Image credit: Network Rail
