Contractors move in for GCR’s new £3m bridge

Contractors from the civil engineering company MPB Structures, which will build the new £3 million bridge spanning the Midland Main Line and linking the two ‘halves’ of the Great Central Railway, have taken occupancy of the ‘gap site’, to begin site clearance and prepare for construction of the north and south abutments. The move in mid-January all but signals the firing of the starting gun on the GCR’s ‘Bridging the Gap’ project, first dreamed of by the railway’s supporters 40 years ago. Wrangling over a range of legal agreements, including access rights, easements and land transfers involving parcels of land (some of which are as small as a kitchen table) has taken months. But now lawyers for the five main parties involved - the GCR, Network Rail, Charnwood Borough Council, the East Midlands Railway Trust and aerospace component manufacturers Preci-Spark (which is ceding parts of its Loughborough factory site to the project) have finally agreed on the wording of contracts. Signing of the documents, which will allow the 30-week bridge construction project to begin in earnest, was prospectively ‘just days away’ as this issue of Steam Railway closed for press, though Great Central Railway CEO Andy Munro was being cautious in his prediction. “It could happen within the week - but statements like that can backfire,” he said. “What I will say is that the start of work on our ‘Bridge to the Future’ is scarily close. For the first time since the project began some years ago, we are at a point where all parties are in agreement, and there are no longer any issues to be resolved. I expect us to sign the contracts in the very near future. “Men with diggers are on site now, putting up their site huts, and clearing and testing the ground in anticipation of us giving them the go-ahead. It’s my fervant hope that those GCR members and supporters who come to our AGM in the summer (a date is yet to be set), will be able to walk across the bridge, and see at first hand the completion of one of the biggest civil engineering projects ever undertaken by any preserved railway.” £1,154,000 has been contributed to the project cost by public and private subscriptions. The ‘gap’ between the two sections of the GCR, which was physically severed in 1973, is just 550 yards.