Stanway Viaduct closed over crack concerns
TRAINS TO Broadway on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway might not resume as planned in March after “a long-standing open joint” was discovered on Stanway Viaduct.
The 15-arch brick-built structure, which is situated between Toddington and the line’s terminus at Broadway, has been closed to trains since the end of the main 2023 season to allow Phase 1 of planned remedial repairs to begin on the 1904-built viaduct. This has involved removing the rails, sleepers and ballast to replace the viaduct’s failed waterproof deck with a new concrete layer that would ensure water flows towards the catch pits, with the aim of reopening the viaduct before the GWSR’s services resumed in March 2024.
However, in the process of removing the permanent way, it was discovered that a mortar bond on the parapet brickwork had failed. “The evidence suggests that movement has been happening gradually over many decades and certainly back to when the viaduct was carrying a heavily used double-track main line,” said GWSR civil engineering director Dr Graham
Plant. He added: “We are considering a number of potential solutions which take into account personal and structural safety, engineering, cost, time and, of course, careful conservation of this 120-year-old heritage structure.
“Unfortunately it may take completion of the project beyond the originally planned February 2024 reopening, as well as significantly adding to the cost.”
● To help keep the Stanway Viaduct repairs on track, visit www.gwrt.org.uk/ donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal