South Wales Main Line Electrification – Newport Area

Original Schedule Key Dates

On the 23rd July 2009 the then Labour Government stated that, "work will begin immediately on the electrification of the Great Western Main Line between London, Reading, Oxford, Newbury, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea, to be completed within eight years" (2016/2017).

After the 2010 UK general election in May 2010, the coalition Conservative/Liberal Democrat alliance placed all major government capital expenditure, including the Great Western electrification scheme on hold pending a return-on-investment review. In November 2010, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond gave the go-ahead for the lines from Oxford via Didcot to London and Newbury to London to be electrified in the next six years. Extension from Didcot to Swindon, Bath, Bristol and to South Wales would be dependent on a further assessment due in 2011 of the costs and implementation requirements of the Intercity Express Programme.

On 1 March 2011, transport secretary Philip Hammond announced that rail electrification from Didcot Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff Central would go ahead. The section linking Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads would also be electrified.

In July 2012, the UK Government announced that the final portion of the Great Western from Cardiff to Swansea would be electrified.

So when will the wires appear?

There have been a number of timescales reported in various publications: Here are two reported schedules:

1) Initial plan is that the GWML would be electrified to Bristol by 2016, and extended to Cardiff by 2017.

2) The plan had been to get wires to Oxford, Newbury and Bristol Parkway by 2016, to Bath and Bristol Temple Meads by 2017, and to Cardiff and Swansea by 2018

Bridge and other Infra-Structure Works

As part of our plan to electrify the South Wales Mainline, there have are a number of Key Engineering Projects in the Newport area , mainly a number of bridgesthat will require modification as they are too low to accommodate the overhead wires or need to be upgraded due to Safety issues.

The following is a list of the known work with a reference to the document “Map of bridge works in Newport” released by Network Rail to communicate the tasks that were to happen.

For information the document relating to the adjoining area of Monmouthshire can be found here

STATUS : 3^rd Jan 2016

Not Started

IN PROGRESS

Completed

NR Document Ref No	Structure	Planned works	Proposed start date	Proposed end date	Additional information
1	Somerton Road Bridge	Reconstruction	September 2015	May 2016	The bridge will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians in November 2015 (and will remain closed until Spring 2016). An appropriate diversion is in place for road traffic and a temporary footbridge has been installed directly to the east of the bridge to maintain access for pedestrians.
2	Chepstow Road Rail Bridge	Minor works	February 2016	Spring 2016
	River Usk Bridge	Electrification Mast erection
3	Newport Station Footbridge	Demolition	May 2016	May 2016	The redundant footbridge will be removed.
4	Bridge Street Road Bridge	Reconstruction	Summer 2016	Late 2016	We expect the road will be closed for approximately six months (exact dates TBC). An appropriate diversion will be in place for road traffic and pedestrian access will be diverted over the neighbouring Tunnel Terrace footbridge.
5	Tunnel Terrace Footbridge	Reconstruction / Jacking	TBC	TBC
6	Newport Old Tunnel		TBC	TBC
7	Cardiff Road Bridge (Oaks)	Reconstruction	November 2015	May 2016	We expect the road will remain open to traffic (and pedestrians) during the work but with single lane traffic only and traffic calming measures in place.
18	Cardiff Road Bridge (AD Bridge)	Demolition	December 2014	December 2014
9	Maesglas Road Bridge	Reconstruction	Late 2016	2017
10	Cuckoo Road Bridge	Reconstruction	November 2015	April 2016
	Lighthouse Road	Reconstruction	November 2012	April 2013
11	Maerdy Farm Road Bridge	Reconstruction	November 2015	April 2016
12	Hawse Lane Road Bridge	Reconstruction	TBC	TBC
13	Summerway Road Bridge	Reconstruction	June 2016	Early 2017
14	Green Lane / Heol Las Road Bridge	Reconstruction	Summer 2016	Spring 2017

Actual Events Key Dates

This list the actual dates when key events both locally and nationally occurred during the project.

Date	Location	Event
1^st & 3^rd Jan 2016	Somerton Road Bridge	Partd for new Bridge Deck lifted into position
26^th Dec 2015	Somerton Road Bridge	New Pier Supports lifed into place
25^th Dec 2015	Cuckoo Road Bridge	Demolished
25^th/26^th Dec 2015	Somerton Road Bridge	Demolished
25^th/26^th Dec 2015	Cardiff Road Bridge (Oaks)	Westbound Bridge Deck removed
Dec 2015	Cuckoo Road Bridge	Bridge Closed
1^st Dec 2015	Somerton Road Bridge	Bridge Closed to pedestrians. Pedestrian access via temporary footbridge
1^st Nov 2015	Cardiff Road Bridge (Oaks)	Westbound Lane closed, Single file traffic on eastbound side
1^st Nov 2015	Somerton Road Bridge	Bridge Closed to vehicles
12^th March 2015		First Hitachi IEP train arrives in UK from Japan
25^th Dec 2014	Cardiff Road Bridge (ADR)	Removal of old Alexander Dock Railway Bridge
22^nd Apr 2013	Lighthouse Road	Reopened to traffic
12^th Nov 2012	Lighthouse Road	Closed to all traffic

Images of Work Progress

The following shows images of the changes and includes before and after images and Work in Progress Images. You can click on the following links to go to the relevant sections:

· Somerton Road Bridge

· Cardiff Road Bridge (Oaks)

· Cardiff Road Bridge (ADR)

· Cuckoo Road Bridge

· Lighthouse Road Bridge

Somerton Road Bridge
Some images of Somerton Road Bridge when in use in early 2015.
These images were taken on 13th December 2015, following closure and prior to demolition and are taken from the temporary footbridge diversion that was in place. What is noticeable is where work has been done on the Northern and Centre supports on the parts that are to remain while the site is prepared for the construction of a new southern supporting pier.
On the 24th December 2015 it can be seen that the new Southern support is completed. This was last view of everything as it was prior to work commencing on the site at 23:00. All of which had to be done in a 56 Hour window
At around 12:00 on the 25th - 13 Hours into the work the following has been undertaken. · Protective track cover in place · Road surface removed from bridge · Removal of embankment on approach to Northern side of Bridge
At around 18:00 on the 25th - 19 Hours into the work the following has been completed since earlier. · Northern Bridge removed · Northern Approach Embankment removed · Northern Pier reduced to new height
At 09:00 on the 26th - 34 Hours into the work the following has been undertaken since the previous evening. · Southern Bridge removed · Southern Approach embankment cut back · Centre Pier reduced in height · First section of new support in place on Northern Pier · Track protective cover being removed
At 17:00 on the 26th - 42 Hours into the work the following has been undertaken since earlier that day. · Protective track cover completely removed · New Northern pier supports all in place · Preparation for placement of new supports on Centre Pier
At 12:00 on the 27th and the line had been opened on schedule and the following are seen. · New Centre Pier Support in place · New Southern Pier Support in place
On New Years Eve (31st) the first cross members of the new bridge were lifted into place during an eight hour period.
On the night of the 2nd/3rd the remaining sections of the bridge were lifted into place. The difference in height of the old road way and new bridge are visible in the image below.

Cardiff Road Bridge (Oaks)
Some images of Cardiff Road Bridge taken from Google street view showing what I looked like prior to work commencing.
A view that shows the single file traffic arrangement that was in place while the first the stage to replace the Westbound carriageway bridge was undertaken.
A view that shows the two styles of bridge which makes up the bridge on Cardiff Road. A typical girder style bridge on the left with a more traditional style stone bridge on the right.
Three views that show the initial construction work that was being undertaken to construct the supports for the new bridge deck. These have been located behind the line of the original bridges retaining walls.
The following images show the progress at around 12:00 on 25^th December 13 hours into the progress to remove the bridges. The stone bridge has been removed and the work is currently on removing the steel bridge where the exposed steel girders can be seen.
By 09:00 on the 26th 34 – Hours into the work both Bridges had been removed and work was underway to demolish and remove completely the centre bridge support.

Cardiff Road Bridge (ADR)
Running Parallel to Cardiff Road Railway Bridge was another Railway briadge that use to carry the railway lines from the Western Valleys across the main line to what was known as the Monmouthshire Bank railway sidings and provided access to Newport Docks. This bridge had been redundant for at least 35 years and was finally removed on Christmas Day (25^th December) 2014. The image below shows the removal in progress of the side members of the bridge

	Cuckoo Road Bridge
	Cuckoo Road Bridge is also known as Pheasants Curve Bridge and is a dirt track road down to a farm and the sea wall near the Mouth of the River Ebbw and has been very popular with Railway photographers over the years. The image below was taken in early 2015 when a steam special to Cardiff is seen passing underneath the bridge.
	The bridge was removed on Christmas Day 25^th December 2015. This is the view from the Lighthouse Road Bridge on the 26^th showing the gap where the bridge was.

	Lighthouse Road Bridge
	A view from Google Streetview of the bridge prior to replacement
	The replacement bridge seen from Cuckoo Road Bridge looking towards Cardiff

Page Updated: 3-Jan-2016