Plessey Viaduct could reopen in three weeks, Network Rail says

During planned works on the Plessey Viaduct between Newcastle and Morpeth over the weekend engineers discovered the parapet, a safety feature of the bridge had moved, forcing work to stop and specialist teams to be brought in.

Images were released yesterday (Monday, October 9) showing the extent of the damage to the bridge, where a 20-meter section of the parapet was found to be unstable.

Read more: See damage to vital viaduct causing severe disruption on East Coast Mainline

There were fears that works to repair the Plessey Viaduct could take months with passengers on the entire East Coast Mainline potentially facing disruption, but Network Rail insisted services could be running again as normal in just a few weeks’ time.

Paul Rutter, Route Director for Network Rail on the East Coast Mainline, told the Echo: “We are very hopeful it will take about three weeks then we can get the track renewal done to open up.

Paul Rutter from Network Rail at the site near Stannington, Northumberland. (Image: DANIEL HORDON)

“We had engineering work on this weekend to renew the track and the rail sleepers and ballast across the viaduct and that’s where we started the activity on Friday night into Saturday morning.

“We noticed the wall on top of the viaduct had moved towards the river side and that’s when we stopped work and got our specialist engineers and contractors in.”

Trains are still running over the viaduct over the River Blyth in Northumberland but are temporarily restricted to speeds of 50mph and are using a single track.

Trains are still running over the viaduct with speed restrictions in place. (Image: DANIEL HORDON)

Trains have to swap lines at Morpeth station, which means services Southbound are unable to call there.

Network Rail has reassured passengers there is no safety risk from running services over the bridge.

“Network Rail would never do anything that would put anyone in danger; passengers or our own staff; hence why we stopped the work,” Mr Rutter added.

“The bridge structure itself has been examined and there’s no issue, it’s just the wall parapet section of 20 meters.

Network Rail released drone pictures of the viaduct on Monday. (Image: NETWORK RAIL)

“We would never allow trains to run, and also, we have monitoring equipment on throughout the work so we can tell the vibrations from the trains.

“There’s no risk whatsoever to passengers.”

Work was last carried out on the bridge in 2014, which was focussed on reinforcing the parapet. No “intrusive” works have taken place since although the bridge has been monitored with scheduled surveys which identified no issue until now.

A timetable for the work will be announced this week. Engineers are currently assessing whether they can cast a new concrete parapet on site, or whether they can bring in a pre-cast structure. Both are expected to take roughly the same amount of time.

Engineers are currently working at the site/ (Image: DANIEL HORDON)

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A spokesperson on behalf of train operators previously said: “We want to thank our passengers for their patience as Network Rail carries out essential work to repair Plessey Viaduct. There is a reduced service in place, and some services are not stopping at Morpeth, Cramlington, and Manors stations.

“We are advising passengers to check before they travel with National Rail Enquiries or via their train operator.”

LNER services southbound are not stopping at Morpeth station. All Northern services from Newcastle to Morpeth are cancelled except for commuter trains at 5.57am and 5.57pm.