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Newtown Road Bridge Replacement

This £1.8 million bridge replacement project was carried out for Network Rail, working in association with Kent County Council’s Highways Road Improvements and Headroom Scheme. The bridge carries the Ashford to Hastings railway line across Newtown Road, south of the international station. 

The project comprised the reconstruction of existing railway bridge to include the re-alignment of the carriageway to increase headroom clearance and width for carriageway and foot-ways under the structure. The works also included the removal of the three redundant railway bridge spans, the installation and construction of the new southern abutment substructure, the placement of an abutment box beam and new decks, and a new capping beam to the north abutment.

During the design and planning stages, it became apparent that this was not a straightforward bridge replacement and the challenges included:

• Insufficient land to carry out the works
• Flooding of the road from the River Stour
• Poor ground conditions
• A maximum 52 hour possession window
• Discovering the area was the home of slow worms that required moving.
• The new abutment was to be constructed from a complex composite steel and concrete T beam that would require one of the largest cranes in the country to lift it.

It became apparent that in order to cast the reinforced concrete around the cross head beam, it would be necessary to rotate the 80 tonne steel part of the T beam through 90° to complete the concrete works. This involved the use of two mobile cranes and some detailed mathematics to determine the centre of gravity at all stages of the process.

To lift in the new 140 tonne concrete and steel T Beam abutment, a 800 tonne lattice jib mobile crane with super-lift was used. On the still restricted site, the crane pads were within one metre of the boundary fences on both sides of the working area. The crane could only be rigged by positioning the site offices in such a way that there was room between the huts for the main jib to be fixed.

Having had so many problems to overcome, it seemed inevitable that the weather would play it’s part. For the main possession heavy rain and winds were predicted for the area, but whilst it was pouring with rain the site remained largely clear and the wind, although reaching its predicted speed, allowed the lifts to be completed. 

The programme was achieved at every stage and the site was handed back to Network Rail to complete the tamping on time.