A recent addition to the Durham skyline proved its worth last week as the world’s most powerful mobile crane was used to lift a new footbridge into place over the East Coast Main Line.

The old bridge at Blanchland Avenue has come to the end of its useful life; however, because the railway runs through a cutting next to a housing estate and Low Newton nature reserve, engineers faced a complicated puzzle on how to remove the old bridge and get the new one in – all without disturbing a single rail journey.

Warrick Dent, area general manager for Network Rail, said: “We have a commitment to our passengers to complete improvement works with the minimum possible disturbance to their journey.  In this case that was a challenge not only because of the short amount of time between trains but also because the nearest place to site the crane is over 85m from the actual bridge.

“Using this massively powerful crane our engineers have come up with a creative and cost effective solution which has replaced the bridge and kept trains running throughout and I would like to congratulate them on a job well done”.

The old bridge was removed and the new one put into place over night on 27/28 March.  Some follow up works were completed last week. 

The investment is worth £400,000.