Another milestone achievement for the TRU East Alliance

To allow the safe installation of new overhead line equipment, the alliance needs to raise the height of the bridge’s stone abutments by 1.5 metres. To achieve this, teams carefully removed the cast iron arched girders, bridge deck, parapets, and original iron railings.

Teams constructed a bespoke arched framework to support the Bridge before slowly manoeuvring the structure in one piece using a specialist 128-wheel self-propelled modular vehicle.

Following the successful movement of the bridge, the railway line was restored and re-opened to trains on schedule on the Monday morning.

These historic components will now be repaired and renovated off-site while additional layers of stone abutments will now be built higher, using masonry reclaimed from the bridge and Brady Farm Bridge, 3.6km to the east. 

Once complete, the restored structure will be carefully reinstated, preserving its character while making space for a modern, electrified railway.

We commend the skill and precision needed to complete this delicate operation safely and efficiently, and we thank everyone involved – our alliance partners and wider supply chain. This is a truly collective effort which wouldn’t have been possible without everyones support.

Crawshaw Woods Bridge

Crawshaw Woods bridge is a Grade II listed bridge and is the earliest cast-iron bridge still in place over an operational railway in the world.

The bridge was designed as part of the Leeds & Selby Railway by engineer James Walker, and is one of only two iron bridges built over the Leeds & Selby Railway, most others being masonry. 

It was a simple designed structure, a single span iron bridge with stone abutments at each end, build for the use of farm traffic to Shippen House Farm, to the north. It was constructed by the Stanningley Ironworks, based in Leeds, which made many listed structures, including the ironwork for York station roof.