Repair team faces huge rail embankment challenge

The engineer leading repairs to a railway embankment has said the landslip there is the biggest he has faced in his career.

Adam Checkley from Network Rail said 12,000 tonnes of stone would be needed for the work between Wellington and Oakengates in Shropshire.

The collapse last week led to the closure of the Shrewsbury to Birmingham line.

He said a project of that size would normally take up to three years to plan and up to 16 weeks to carry out, but the timescales had been condensed to get the line open again as quickly as possible.

The line is expected to reopen by 28 March, in time for Easter.

After the landslip was reported by a train driver, Mr Checkley said Network Rail investigators were called to the site to assess the damage.

Mr Checkley, the company's regional infrastructure director, explained: "This is probably five times as big as anything I've had to deal with on the railway in my career."

In recent weeks, there had been a number of landslips along railway lines, but he said most were no more than 6m (20ft) in size while this one was up to 20m (66ft).

The embankment stands 17m (56ft) above ground level, with almost 6,000 tonnes of material falling when the landslip occurred.

Mr Checkley said the landslip had almost certainly been caused by the amount of rain that had fallen over the winter.

"Eventually this side of the embankment just couldn't cope with the amount of water that was in it," he said.

He also noted the embankment was more than 160 years old and had "done incredibly well to last this long".

The first phase of the work has involved clearing an area of woodland the size of three football pitches to allow better access to the site.

The first stone arrived on Wednesday and Mr Checkley said he expected up to 30 lorry loads would be delivered every day for several days.

When the repairs are complete, he said the embankment would resemble "a large stepped rockery, the largest rockery you've ever seen".

He added the job had been a "big undertaking" and simplified solutions had been needed to get the work done quickly.

But he said it helped that he had worked with his team for a long time and knew them all well.

He said as someone who used the line personally, he understood the urgency.

"I can't tell you how guilty I feel when I have to use the trains as well," he said.

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