Network Rail has revealed details of a £23 million project to repair a landslip on the Settle to Carlisle railway line.

Engineers will build a concrete and steel tunnel-like structure to stabilise the 500,000-tonne gorge bank above the River Eden, which gave way due to erosion in February.

The structure will provide a stable base across the damaged ground via two rows of high-strength piles, which will be placed on a 1.5m-thick, 100m-long concrete slab to form the base of the new track.


In addition, a £5m earthworks project is being planned to protect the foot of the bank down to the river, including drainage systems, 'rock armour' and tree planting.

Martin Frobisher, managing director for Network Rail's London North Western route, said: "The tunnel-like structure we're building will safeguard this section of railway for generations to come. If the land gives way again, the railway will not.

"This is a complex repair job many months in the planning."

Once the project is complete, the Settle-Carlisle railway will reopen by the end of March 2017.

(LM/CD)