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Part of Network Rail’s £1.2bn East Coast Upgrade is a grade separated dive under at Werrington near Peterborough. It will increase capacity on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), and increase freight traffic on the slower Stamford and Spalding Great North Great Eastern (GNGE) lines.
This will be achieved by removing constraints to the timetable caused by slower freight trains on the down GNGE line. The Werrington grade separation keeps freight and light passenger operations off the main line while the down traffic on the GNGE line runs underneath the ECML.
Bauer Technologies’ railside piling works around the junction enabled principal contractor Morgan Sindall Infrastructure to prepare the site. Then, during a nine day blockade, it removed the ECML tracks and lifted the overhead line equipment.
The team then dug out a trench while simultaneously pushing the new prefabricated curved tunnel into place. The ECML tracks were then relaid ready for regular services to resume – ahead of schedule.
Bauer had to demonstrate to client Network Rail through works package plans (WPP), adjacent line open (ALO) protocol and Network Rail Standard NR_L3_INI_CP0063 Piling Adjacent to the Running Line that it could install the piles for the dive under in a safe and controlled operation. The team used the Bauer Virtual Site Installer (VSI) software package to draw the operation in a building information modelling environment so it could explain to all stakeholders how it was going to arrange the site and work.
Digitalisation
The site was broken down into eight sections of work, all planned and drawn up in the VSI system.
From the VSI drawings, the site plan and layouts were discussed with Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, and WPP and task briefing sheets and ALO plans were drawn up.
The original tender plan for the south ramp west wall consisting of 281, 900mm piles dictated that two rigs and cranes were required to work under strict ALO conditions as they were up to 3m from the running line and between 400kV live overhead line masts and bases.
Using the VSI plan it became apparent that to increase productivity while making the working environment safer, a second rig could be mobilised and used for lifting operations only, due to ALO restrictions imposed on the cranes.
By utilising this second rig as a crane, Bauer achieved the target piling output with one rig, rather than the planned two.
Further use of digitalisation by the site team included the use of FieldView for the onsite records.
These were completed daily and uploaded directly into the MS Cloud for all project stakeholders to review.
Project Planning
At the start of the project, the Bauer team was fully embedded into the Morgan Sindall Infrastructure delivery team. During the initial works, Bauer was the lead contractor, as it was the “first” on site. All stages of the work were meticulously planned, collaboratively using Bauer’s VSI tool, resulting in the rigs working in a safe and efficient working environment while fully complying with the approved WPP, ALO protocols and Network Rail standards. This helped the Morgan Sindall Infrastructure team to plan ALO working and the excavators and dumpers required to remove spoil arisings.
Lessons Learned
Being embedded in the delivery team early had clear benefits: collaborative planning using Bauer’s visualisation tools allowed issues to be identified early on, meaning changes could be made without impacting the work.
During the work, Bauer confirmed that the ALO protocols and Network Rail Standard NR_L3_INI_CP0063 Piling Adjacent to the Running Line were more than adequate to allow it to work in a controlled and efficient manor in a high risk rail environment. A robust platform design, rigorously checked lift plans and temporary works design, plus a dedicated rail team checking ALO plans onsite, helped Bauer achieve the project’s very demanding safety requirements.
The working practices developed and followed on this scheme were successfully replicated on one of Bauer’s subsequent projects: the M6 junction 19 motorway improvement. Adopting the lessons learned from Werrington and using the same digital visualisation tools, allowed Bauer to plan and deliver the work in a safe and efficient manner working collaboratively with the main contractor and Highways England.
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