Network Rail has completed work on a new rockfall shelter to protect the coastal railway between Exeter and Newton Abbot from extreme weather.

The 109m-long shelter at the northern end of Parsons Tunnel, near Holcombe, has taken two years to build and will protect the railway from falling rocks and debris from the steep cliffs.

Made up of 185 pre-cast concrete units, coloured red to match the local sandstone, the striking structure is open on the seaward side so passengers can still enjoy the coastal views.

The teams from contractor Morgan Sindall Infrastructure carefully manoeuvred the pieces into place using a gantry crane that runs along rails. Most of the construction was carried out at night, while trains weren’t running, to keep everyone safe.


The roof of the shelter is covered with 4,100 tonnes of red sand and 5,132m³ of foam concrete was used to backfill between the shelter and the cliff. Above the structure, 7,000m² of stainless-steel netting, secured by 1,400 soil nails, has been installed to provide extra protection.

The £48m structure was funded by the Department for Transport as part of Network Rail’s South West Rail Resilience Programme, set up after the major storm of 2014 that cut off the railway to the peninsula for eight weeks.

It brings the total invested in the Programme to £165m, including the new sea wall at Dawlish and work is currently under way to install 19,700 square metres of netting secured by 6,000 soil nails on the cliffs between Dawlish and Holcombe.

Network Rail will shortly be submitting its outline business case for the final phase of the Programme between Parson’s Tunnel and Teignmouth to the Department for Transport (DfT) for consideration.

The proposed work follows three years of extensive analysis of existing data, plus further ground investigations on the 1.8km stretch of railway.

As outlined in a series of public events last November, engineers are working on a programme of targeted solutions for the cliffs ranging from soil nailing and netting to groundwater management. This would protect the railway without impacting the beaches between Holcombe and Teignmouth, leaving the track where it is.