VolkerRail is working with sister company, VolkerFitzpatrick, to install all overhead line (OLE) equipment at the Tyne and Wear Metro’s Gosforth fleet depot.
As part of the depot’s construction, VolkerRail will install all OLE structures and cable across the siding’s new 14 roads, and within the new depot building.
The brand new depot, being built by VolkerFitzpatrick, will accommodate the new state-of-the-art trains for Metro, set to start arriving next year and enter passenger service from 2023.
The new depot is being built on a 12-acre site, close to Regent Centre station. As well as being adapted to optimise train movements, to keep noise to a minimum for the benefit of local residents, it is also being fully electrified, in readiness for the new fleet of electric trains, currently being built by Stadler.
VolkerRail has already completed the early OLE stage works, which included installing a number of circular hollow section steel piles and foundations at the East and West ends of the depot.
The team will begin the next stage of work, to install the depot’s new OLE booms at the end of October. This will be followed by further piling works, and then the main OLE steelwork erection and wire runs, before the redundant equipment is removed in Summer 2022.
Marcus Dench, VolkerFitzpatrick senior project manager