'Significant' progress being made on repairs after huge landslip on Severn Valley Railway

In January, a serious landslip at a bridge along the 16.5-mile Severn Valley Railway (SVR) left part of the track, between Bridgnorth and Hampton Loade, suspended in mid-air.

While 12 miles of the line remain open, the heritage railway has been unable to operate services from Bridgnorth ever since.

Specialist engineering contractors CML took possession of the site at the beginning of June, with the Severn Valley Railway now reporting "significant process" has been made on repairing the site.

More than 2,500 tonnes of material have already been excavated from the embankment and temporary culverting works on the watercourse below the bridge have been completed.

This work will facilitate full access to the embankment for plant and machinery, which will allow further excavation to take place around the collapsed wing wall of the bridge. 

The next stage will involve installing a concrete footing and lifting in more than 100 2.5-tonne concrete blocks to create a solid structure.

SVR project manager Antony Bartlam said: "Next, CML will backfill the embankment structure, using alternate layers of geogrid matting and imported aggregate, to tie the new wall into the embankment.

"They’ll place large L-shaped precast concrete units across the top of the bridge to form a strong base to carry the track bed, ready for the reinstatement of the rail itself. It really is a very clever solution indeed, and CML’s progress is impressive, helped by the recent good weather."

While CML are experts in rail infrastructure, this particular project has brought some new challenges, contracts manager, Stuart Hale, explained: "This really is something different, not just a run-of-the-mill embankment failure. 

"We needed to find a robust and permanent solution that we could build at speed, and which was affordable to a heritage line. 

"It also needed to comply with the local authority’s mitigation measures, working around the watercourse. 

"We’re very glad to now be at the ‘boots-on-the-ground’ stage and looking forward to getting this finished, hopefully with no undue problems."

The SVR’s managing director, Jonathan ‘Gus’ Dunster added: "It’s so satisfying to now be making real progress with this repair. We’ve had a lot of frustrating delays, but all of them were necessary. 

"We needed to get clearance for the temporary culverting of the watercourse for example, along with ecological surveys to determine the impact of the works on wildlife such as otters, fish and crayfish. 

"We also had to work with National Grid, whose high voltage power lines run right across the middle of the site.

"As soon as the embankment failure happened at the end of January, we saw a tremendous groundswell of support from the public. 

"Thousands of people have donated, and together with money from our insurance company, this has meant we could go ahead with this essential repair work to re-unite the whole length of the line to Bridgnorth."

Gus said there should be "definite news" next week on when the line will fully reopen, and plans are in motion to do something "rather special" to celebrate the reunification of the full 16-mile line.