Bridge 27 Renewal

Haworth, United Kingdom

Year

2024

Duration

12 months

Cost

£1.25M

Location

United Kingdom

Project achievements

Conservation

Future-proofed the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway

Economy boosted

Enables the railway to keep running its tourist services

Solved the problem

Increased the capacity of the Bridgehouse Beck tributary to reduce flood risk

Secure the future of a heritage railway

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KWVR) is a charity dedicated to preserving this heritage railway which runs from Keighley to Oxenhope in West Yorkshire.

Its volunteer civil engineering team came together to renew Bridge 27, which spans Bridgehouse Beck, a tributary of River Worth.

The bridge, which was over 130 years old, was a reconstruction of the original structure that was erected in the 1860s when the line originally opened.

After major flooding in 2015 and 2020, it was decided the bridge’s span needed to increase to make more room for the river.

After three years of development with designers Cass Hayward, the chosen option was a half-through steel girder bridge (where the deck is supported by two plate girders, or beams), sat on new foundations.

The project wasn’t immune to pressures of inflation during this period. Fortunately, it was possible to secure a £1M grant towards the project from the UK government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

This bridge renewal is the largest project the KWVR has ever undertaken, by the measure of complexity, cost and sheer scale.

Heritage civil engineering in action

Watch video and drone footage of the Bridge 27 Renewal, a project that took over 2,500 volunteer hours to complete.

Video credit: KWVR Ltd

Did you know …

This is the first use of piles anywhere on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway since its construction in the 1860s.
The loading model for the bridge was checked against pre-1960 British Standards to assess the impact of steam trains, which load structures differently to modern engines and carriages.
The KWVR appears in the 1970’s film version of The Railway Children.

How the work was done

Beaver Bridges began fabricating the 50-tonne steel deck in June 2024 in their Wigan facility.

On 1 September 2024, volunteers removed the track and dismantled the existing bridge.

Beaver Bridges started onsite the next day and constructed the pile caps (thick concrete mats that rest on the piles that have been driven into the ground) and bridge bearings (a structural component that allows controlled movement to reduce stress on the bridge).

A 450-tonne Ainscough Crane arrived on 14 September to lift the 50-tonne bridge into position without incident.

After that, our volunteers reinstated the track over the structure, completing the project on time on Friday 20 September. Passenger services returned on Saturday 21 September.

The main challenge, apart from scale and cost, was the restricted nature of the site.

Businesses, local roads and housing surrounded the site on three sides. A river ran through the site, too, with a high probability of flooding.

This influenced design and construction decisions. For instance, the team opted for rotary piling to reduce disturbance to surrounding structures.

The project also led to some temporary road closures, cutting off the only access route into a large housing estate, requiring a communication plan to minimise disruption.

This was successful and no complaints were received. In fact, many residents watched from the overbridge nearby.

Difference the project has made

This project has secured the long-term future of the railway.

It demonstrates that the KWVR values its infrastructure and is investing in civil engineering projects alongside that of the rolling stock fleet (engine and carriages), which is more visible to the public.

Our new volunteers can take pride in a structure that they will manage for decades to come.

The Bridge 27 Renewal also shows that while undertaking projects to modern standards, we can still use heritage assets.

This included the crane that demolished the existing structure, which dates to 1931 and is steam powered. It allowed heritage skills to be maintained, and the local community was really intrigued by it!