ENGINEERS from Network Rail recently completed nine days working on the UK’s only sliding canal bridge at Keadby.
Keadby Canal’s walls and remove rails and track equipment that had been in place for many years, to install new replacements. Scheme project manager Sean Ellerby said: “The last nine days have seen an incredible amount of hard work from our teams as they carried out a large-scale programme of improvements to the sliding bridge, railway and canal wall in Keadby.”
Before a 24.5-tonne pre-cast concrete slab was installed on the north wall, engineers had to drain part of the canal near Scunthorpe using a limpet dam. This structure on the side of the wall created a watertight seal, meaning teams could carry out these repairs in a safe and dry environment. On the bridge’s deck, wooden beams which had old rails on top of them have been replaced with metal supports and 200m of new rails were installed. More than 100 engineers worked on the project. The original bridge dates to the 1860s, before being converted into a sliding bridge in 1925. It connects Doncaster with Scunthorpe and the Lincolnshire coast and is one of the busiest routes for freight trains in the UK.
