The railway bridge over the M62 that is ready for £22m work to start

In less than one week, work will begin on a major £22m railway bridge thought to be the first of its kind in the north west.

For the first time in recent memory a section of the M62 motorway will close on September 6.

Traffic will make way for Network Rail, who will rebuild a 42-metre-long, 2,000 tonne railway bridge that takes trains over the M62 in Castleton, near Rochdale.

Two weekend closures will take place this month on the eastbound carriageway between J18 and J20 and the westbound carriageway between J19 and J20.

With just days to go before the motorway is shut, the Local Democracy Reporting Service was invited to the site next to the M62 to witness the grand scale of the construction.

A massive steel beam as well as crushing equipment were on display in all their enormity.

The work site is just beyond Manchester Golf Club in Middleton and sits right next to the motorway, just a few hundred yards from the bridge.

The location was ideal for when two 42 metre, 70 tonne steel beams were ferried over from Ireland and delivered via the M62 during an overnight closure last month.

Since then, engineers have been working to prepare the bridge for its installation in September.

So far, the team have started to assemble the bridge, install the walkway, prepared the abutments (bridge supports) and carried out some waterproofing.

During the road closure, engineers will dismantle the old bridge and take it away on the M62.

The new bridge will then be installed during the second weekend.

National Highways have been alerting motorists as far north as Scotland about the works as the stretch of road is such a key northern route between the west and the east.

Network Rail, who are leading on the project alongside National Highways, have stated how this is one of their biggest railway bridge projects in the region in recent memory.

Olivia Boland, Network Rail sponsor, said: “The main construction will be complete by September 25 this year.

"It is very common for us to use Saturday nights for our works when the trains are not running, so there will be some follow ups to finish the welding and stressing on the track.

“The railway will open with a small speed restriction on it (50mph) and then after five to six weeks when the railway works are done it will reopen to line speed of 75mph.

“This is a sped up project given the fact the bridge isn’t in the best condition and is deteriorating.

"We used specialist designers with lots of experience – getting good heads together.

“It’s quite difficult to say (how much longer the current bridge would last), you can’t put a timeline on it but we have been instructed to replace it within two years.

"That doesn’t mean it will fall down catastrophically, but that it is just recommended to be replaced.

“We (Network Rail) replace bridges all the time but this size and scale, over the motorway, is something we don’t do that often, especially in the north west. It is quite a novelty for us to do – it’s probably one of the first in the north west for us to replace a motorway bridge.”

Ms Boland’s Network Rail colleague William Brandon, who works as the project manager for this scheme explained that the main benefit of the bridge replacement would be to improve safety and longevity of the bridge.

He added that Castleton bridge carries 6 per cent of the UK’s energy supply across the country, as freight trains carry material to and from Drax power station in Selby.

The railway will be closed from September 6 until the early morning of September 25 between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale. Rail replacement buses will be in operation.

Passengers are advised to check their travel in advance as journey times will be significantly longer than usual.

The eastbound carriageway will be closed from 9pm on September 6 until 6am on September 9 and at the same times between September 20 and September 23.

Motorists have been advised to avoid this section of the M62 during the two weekends by delaying journeys or planning alternative routes. 

This would be disruption at a time when demand is lower during the warmer season of the year, according to National Highways.

With schools returning and students heading off to university soon, National Highways bosses were confident that this was the best time to do the works – citing less holiday traffic and better weather conditions.

Dee Murray, operations manager, National Highways, said: “Our role in this is making sure we’re patrolling the network with cameras as well.

"We will also be working with our media teams to make sure that the public are aware of the closures and know what is going on.

“We know it’s going to be a busy weekend, we’ve worked with Network Rail on the planning as we want to choose a time to cause less disruption – that is why we chose to do this over the weekend.

“We purposely avoided the holiday period to get round this but there is no way of doing a project of this size without disruption.

"The work is done to minimise that disruption not just for the motorists but the people in the local area as well.”

Mr Murray went on to say how the holiday period sees more people on longer journeys without as much knowledge on the road network – meaning term time is a better option.

National Highways said they have worked hard to make sure they are well aware of the upcoming closures.

Drivers have been warned that the two weekend closures will affect cross-Pennine travel plans with the motorway linking Liverpool and Hull as well as the cities of Manchester and Leeds in between.

While drivers are being advised to avoid this section of the M62 if possible diversions will be in place. 

Due to the timings of the work over weekends, different closure and diversion arrangements will be in place for the westbound and eastbound carriageways – with the eastbound carriageway actually being closed from junction 18 of the M62 at Simister Island interchange to junction 20 of the M62 at Rochdale.

The westbound carriageway will be closed between junction 20 at Rochdale and junction 19 at Heywood.

The diversion for eastbound drivers will use the strategic road network with drivers from the M66 or clockwise M60 and reaching Simister Island travelling to junction 21 of the M60 at Chadderton where they should then use the northbound A663 (Broadway) and northbound A627M to join the M62 at junction 20.

Drivers diverted off the westbound M62 at junction 20 will be sent back onto the motorway via Middleton – using the southbound A627(M), southbound A664 Rochdale Road and northbound A6046 Hollin Lane, re-joining the M62 at junction 19.

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