Clapham junction Bridge Replacement
Bridge 2/11-2/12 – a skewed two span structure consisting of 26 decks – supports 13 railway lines which primarily carry passenger services to and from the south of England into London Waterloo and London Victoria Stations.

Below, the structure spans over four railway lines which carry predominantly freight traffic. The site is situated approximately one mile north of Clapham Junction Station, UK’s busiest railway station.

The £3.5m Network Rail funded scheme involved the replacement of ten substandard existing decks which support the five central railway lines. These lines form part of the strategic link for South West train services operating between the London terminus, Waterloo Station and the south-west region of the country. The work was implemented using two rail mounted cranes within a 102 hour possession of the railway during the 2004 Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

The work was procured through the Southern Region Construction Partnership, a partnership between Network Rail and Edmund Nuttall Ltd, responsible for implementing the bridge strengthening and renewals programme within Network Rail’s South East Territory. As the Contractor’s designer Mott MacDonald provided strategic design and consultancy services.

The key challenges to the design and build team included the rail locked nature of the site, limited space, access constraints as well as the tight programme deadline.

The decks to be replaced comprised approximately 14m and 15m spans for the Clapham and London ends respectively. The deck replacement options were limited due to the access constraints preventing the use of mobile road cranes and other installation techniques. This meant that the decks had to be as light as practicably possible to enable a rail mounted crane to place the prefabricated deck unit. A KIROW 810 crane was the only commercially available rail crane at the time capable of lifting the anticipated weights at the required reach.