Fully-electric Smart-Release BulkX used on replacement railway bridge project in the UK.
The TRU East Alliance in the UK is responsible for delivering the Transpennine route upgrade, a modern high speed railway for greener, more reliable train services between York, Leeds and Manchester.
Partial electrification, replacement of over/under bridges, pedestrian foot bridges, improved sidings, platform upgrades and drainage work, including tunnel boring works carried out beneath the line, were all carried out.
Rail re-alignment, replacement track points, and signal gantries were just some of the highly complex packages of work involved.
In May 2024, on one section of the railway beside the village of Barkston Ash, the contractor had a complex and time-sensitive challenge to replace an end-of-life brick arch over bridge, which was spanning the A162, a main access route into York. The bridge carried trains on the CFM line linking the Northern cities of Leeds and York. The project was planned for months in advance, including allowing for a rail diversion route so that passengers could still travel by rail between the two cities.
The works were planned within a 101-hour working window in a four-day blockade and the works were serviced from a compound with no direct access onto the track for machinery from road level.
The removal of track ballast, spoil and the replacement of new bulk material was fully dependent on 700t Ainscough and Conquip lifting accessories. The team needed to remove the brick arch and abutments approximately 14m long and made up 650 tonnes of brick and stone material, lift and shift this back to the compound with the Conquip Smart-Release BulkX, before the replacement could begin with 45t PCC sills and 65t Steel U becks providing a basis of a modern and stronger metal structure.
Excavators and cranes were in-use and on-site to support the contractor teams working day and night to complete the rail replacement.
Conquip provided the Smart-Release BulkX skip with a capacity of 16,000 litres, the largest size that is available, to carry out large volumes of excavation and movement of material.
The solution, which is remote operated and fully electric to provide the highest operational uptime possible, increases the rate of excavation and removal of materials from and to a range of locations on any site, while improving safety and removing people-plant interface risks.
The highly engineered Smart-Release BulkX provided a reliable and flexible method for the team to move materials from the lower compound up onto track. The provision and use of two skips meant that there was always the availability of one full of the required materials, with no downtime in the delivery of materials to the team at the working face.
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