Big girders arrive for M62 bridge replacement

Ahead of two weekend road closures later this month (September), two 42m-long steel girders have been delivered to an assembly yard close to the M62 motorway.

The girders will form a replacement rail bridge spanning the motorway at Castleton, near Rochdale. Network Rail is investing more than £22M in the project, which will see the old bridge demolished one weekend and the new fully-assembled structure installed the following weekend, using a series of Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMT).

The girders were fabricated in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, by Murphy International, before making the voyage over the Irish Sea to Holyhead, Wales.

David Hunter, Network Rail’s Senior Freight Manager, said: “Castleton bridge is an essential part of the country’s freight network and is on a key freight route across the Pennines which links the west and east sides of the country.

“Heavy freight trains, which deliver aggregate products so the construction sector can keep building roads and houses, run over the bridge as well as several daily biomass services to Drax power station, which provide power to the national grid for electricity.”