Great Western Coffee Shop

All across the Great Western territory => Who's who on Western railways => Topic started by: grahame on May 07, 2020, 06:19:54



Title: Highways England’s rail responsibilities
Post by: grahame on May 07, 2020, 06:19:54
From New Civil Engineer (https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/highways-england-calls-for-bidders-on-30m-historic-railway-structures-deal-07-05-2020/) - a good summary:

Quote
Highways England’s rail responsibilities

The Historical Railway Estate includes legacy bridges, abutments, tunnels, cuttings, viaducts and similar properties associated with closed railway lines and was previously known as the Burdensome Estate – but how did it end up being the responsibility of Highways England?

The structures were not transferred to Railtrack, which became Network Rail in 2002, when British Rail was privatised in 1994 but stayed with the British Railways Board (BRB), which was part oft of the Strategic Rail Authority. Department for Transport took responsibility for the BRB estate when the Strategic Rail Authority was disbanded in 2005 and it was then passed to the Highways Agency in 2013 when the BRB was abolished.

and in the news as they're letting a new inspection contract:

Quote
Tender documents for a 10 year framework deal to undertake inspection work for Highway England’s Historical Railway Estate have been published, valuing the work at £30M.

According to the details published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the work will involve inspection and remedial design for disused rail bridges and tunnels across the UK.

The work covering 3,800 assets, including 77 listed structures such as the Leadersfoot Viaduct in the Scottish Borders and the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester, is the second contract term to be let following transfer of the structures to the Highways Agency [now Highways England] in 2013. The work was previously let in 2015 under four regional contracts with Carillion securing the North, East and West deals and Balfour Beatty winning the South contract. Balfour Beatty took over the contracts when Carillion went into liquidation in 2018.

Is there a list of these assets?  By area??


Title: Re: Highways England’s rail responsibilities
Post by: CyclingSid on May 07, 2020, 06:53:42
If there is, could be a useful start to your question about tunnels and cycling.


Title: Re: Highways England’s rail responsibilities
Post by: bradshaw on May 07, 2020, 08:54:28
If you do a Google search for
highways england historical railways estate
You will turn up a ‘whatdotheyknow.com/request‘ for the location of disused tunnels.
You can follow the outcome and download the list.
I have attached it here, assuming I have done it correctly!


Title: Re: Highways England’s rail responsibilities
Post by: CyclingSid on May 27, 2020, 07:36:34
While following up your ERTA topic I came across the tunnels database on the Forgotten Relics web site http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/tunnels/database/index.html (http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/tunnels/database/index.html). Don't know if you had seen it before, but currently lists 630 items.

Get the impression that ERTA is a bit Midlands-centric, apart from that old chestnut the Guildford to Brighton line.


Title: Re: Highways England’s rail responsibilities
Post by: grahame on May 27, 2020, 07:50:14
While following up your ERTA topic I came across the tunnels database on the Forgotten Relics web site http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/tunnels/database/index.html (http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/tunnels/database/index.html). Don't know if you had seen it before, but currently lists 630 items.

Get the impression that ERTA is a bit Midlands-centric, apart from that old chestnut the Guildford to Brighton line.

Thanks, Sid ... I had (personally) seen that database before and spent happy time exploring it - but I'm sure that it will be new to many users of the forum - it's a hidden gem in many ways.

The ERTA contact who is promoting the Gloucester to Hereford line asks for suggestions by email;  I have sent (by email) a link to the thread, and invited him to fill us in further on ERTA, copied to their "West Country" contact too.



This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net