Steelwork helps new station arrive on time

Using a steel-framed solution for its structures and overbridge is helping a new station in Reading achieve its scheduled planned opening later this year.

Green Park will be a new station at the northern end of the existing Reading to Basingstoke line. Travellers will be able to reach Reading’s main station in just six minutes and Basingstoke in 20 minutes, with both destinations offering connections to London and beyond.

Reading Borough Council says the station will help to alleviate queues on the already busy A33 by offering an alternative sustainable mode of travel. This will be a boon to both residents and workers alike, as the station sits within the fast-growing Green Park Village residential scheme, which has plans for more than 1,000 new homes, and is adjacent to Green Park Business Park.

Working on behalf of main contractor Balfour Beatty, Bourne Rail & Special Projects (part of Bourne Group) has supplied 215t of steelwork for the project.

The steelwork forms a 15m-long overbridge that connects the station’s two 150m-long platforms, while other steel structures include the east platform’s main building/ticket office and an attached canopy, and a further shelter canopy structure on the west platform.

Using steelwork is said to have provided the project with a number of benefits, such as speed of construction, as well as the fact that steel elements were brought to site as prefabricated units that were lifted into place with less onsite work required.