Winvic Construction has successfully lifted eight railway bridge beams into place over the A5 – 2km north of M1 J18.

It is one of three bridges that Winvic is constructing for Prologis at DIRFT III in Northamptonshire, as part of a £29 million contract to deliver a new state-of-the art Intermodal Rail Freight Terminal.

The A5 railway link bridge that will carry two tracks has an effective span of 30m over the highway and is a fully integral, single-span, prestressed concrete structure. The line will be networked to the existing DIRFT terminal and the West Coast Mainline at one end and the new Intermodal Rail Freight Terminal at the other. The terminal will comprise a five-track, 800m long siding with a rail traverser and a 79,000m2 concrete terminal slab. The facility will be capable of receiving up to 24, 775m long trains each day.

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The concrete beams were lifted into place on to the reinforced soil abutments and wing walls during a single day under a 43-hour road closure. A 50m tall Liebherr LTM 11000D crane arrived on site on Friday evening and was rigged on the usually busy trunk road in under ten hours. The first internal beam was sailed and bolted into place at approximately 10.30am and the eighth and final edge beam was installed at 8:30pm, followed by the edge protection works. Multiple GRP (Glassfibre Reinforced Plastic) permanent formwork panels were also installed to the bridge deck throughout the day by the Winvic team. On Sunday morning, the crane was demobilised and traffic management removed, then the road was reopened on schedule at 3.30pm.

The project started in June 2020, with earthwork re-engineering of the plateau, and the scheme will be completed in summer 2021.