Bridge Collapse at Barrow on Soar 2nd Aug 2016

[WestRiding]

It would appear a bridge has collapsed onto the line at Barrow on Soar. Might not be looking good for the Midland Mainline today.

 

[roversfan2001]

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/H32675/2016/08/01/advanced
This freight service appears to have been diverted between Toton Jn. and Helpstone Jn. Every other move shown on RTT since 2348 appears to have been 'frozen' at the origin, not looking good at all.

EDIT: Possibly related to this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow_upon_Soar_train_crash
(I have no idea on the area whatsoever, a quick Google search revealed that)

 

[33056]

EDIT: Possibly related to this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrow_upon_Soar_train_crash
(I have no idea on the area whatsoever, a quick Google search revealed that)

Not related; that was a footbridge, this one is a road bridge from what I can gather.

 

[nottinghamcity]

Quote on Twitter from Leicestershire police

Good Morning. The railway bridge on Grove Road in #Barrowuponsoar has collapsed. The road is closed and severe distruption to trains.

This appears to be Barrow on Soar station itself (in fact Grove Lane).

 

[roversfan2001]

https://twitter.com/HelenMcLive/status/760355457865310208
A short video showing the collapsed bridge.

 

[theageofthetra]

That looks nasty. Did something drive into it or was it due to lack of maintenance?

 

[AM9]

Looks like hydrostatic pressure has ruptured the pier sidewall and taken some of the parapet with it. If the bridge's general condition is poor, would a decision be taken to demolish it and bring forward any gauge enhancement needed for the MML electrification?

 

[yorksrob]

Is this part of the route by-passed by the Corby line ?

If so, things might not be so bad.

 

[AndyW33]

Is this part of the route by-passed by the Corby line ?

If so, things might not be so bad.

No, the Corby line rejoins at Syston, which is south of Barrow upon Soar.
http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk...ormation/DISRUPTION-Leicester---Loughborough/
There will be no trains today on the section north of Syston and south of Loughborough.
Stock that is already south of Leicester can shuttle on the normal route between London and Leicester.
Stock that was at Etches Park or Neville Hill can't get south of Loughborough.
Also affects the Leicester-Nottingham-Lincoln service.

 

[Blamethrower]

Looks like hydrostatic pressure has ruptured the pier sidewall and taken some of the parapet with it. If the bridge's general condition is poor, would a decision be taken to demolish it and bring forward any gauge enhancement needed for the MML electrification?

Had Network Rail started to work on this bridge? They've done quite a few up the MML north of Bedford recently.

Seems a little odd that it would fail like this just before it is due to be re-newed.

 

[edwin_m]

This is on the four track section and looking at the Twitter picture the collapse only affects one side. However I imagine some detailed checks would be needed on the other span before that was declared safe, even though it appears the two spans were built at different times.

There must be some serious questions asked about why routine structural inspections either didn't identify a defect or didn't recognise its seriousness in time to prevent any collapse. RAIB will be involved here, as there must be enough rubble on the track to cause a serious accident had a train been approaching.

I don't recall seeing any evidence of bridge reconstruction for electrification on the MML yet, except on the section used by Corby trains.

 

[yorksrob]

No, the Corby line rejoins at Syston, which is south of Barrow upon Soar.
http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk...ormation/DISRUPTION-Leicester---Loughborough/
There will be no trains today on the section north of Syston and south of Loughborough.
Stock that is already south of Leicester can shuttle on the normal route between London and Leicester.
Stock that was at Etches Park or Neville Hill can't get south of Loughborough.
Also affects the Leicester-Nottingham-Lincoln service.

Do'h !

Of all the places.

I suppose in the old days the Old Dalby line to Nottingham would have been the alternative (or the GC of course).

 

[AndyW33]

There must be some serious questions asked about why routine structural inspections either didn't identify a defect or didn't recognise its seriousness in time to prevent any collapse. RAIB will be involved here, as there must be enough rubble on the track to cause a serious accident had a train been approaching.

Local news (I live in Loughborough) says the road over the bridge was scheduled to be closed tonight for repairs to the footway on one side, which had visibly subsided.

 

[38Cto15E]

As Andy states, the road was scheduled to be closed for 3 nights this week so repairs could be carried out on the bridge, I guess that the collapse happened sooner than Network rail expected.
I am no civil engineer, but it looks a big job to me.
Probably East Midlands Trains will need to get more sets of stock south of Barrow on Soar, perhaps they could move empty stock from Derby via Burton on Trent and Coalville?

 

[Blamethrower]

sounds like a drainage issue potentially. I just hope they can bring forward electrification works and do this bridge early (if they had a plan for it) rather than patch it up now and then re-work it a couple of years down the line.

Quite poor in terms of surveying though, I would've though any subsidence on a bridge is a large cause for concern

 

[Trog]

I wonder if that side of the arch has caused problems in the past as it is odd that the collapsed part is in blue brick and the other three arch faces are all in red brick.

 

[HowardGWR]

Looking at the narrowness of the bridge (Google Earth), it looks as though it may have been weakened by heavy vehicles trying to pass each other by mounting the pavements. Has anyone local knowledge that would contradict my assumption?

 

[ivanhoe]

Looking at the narrowness of the bridge (Google Earth), it looks as though it may have been weakened by heavy vehicles trying to pass each other by mounting the pavements. Has anyone local knowledge that would contradict my assumption?

The section of road is indeed narrow and is one way so there would be no heavy traffic passing each other.

 

[Bald Rick]

Lots of speculation. Wait for some official news.

 

[OwlMan]

THey appear to have set up alternative routes.

NRES
The following alterations are in place:

• A reduced train service will run between London St Pancras International and Leicester and also between Loughborough and Sheffield / Nottingham
• Buses will run between Leicester and East Midlands Parkway
• Only passengers travelling from Leicester, Syston, Sileby, Barrow Upon Soar, and Loughborough should use the replacement buses
• Passengers travelling from any other station should use other operators as listed below
• Passengers for Sheffield / Chesterfield should travel via London Kings Cross and Doncaster
• Passengers for Derby should travel via London Euston and Birmingham New Street
• Passengers for Nottingham should travel via London Kings Cross and Grantham
• Buses will run between Kettering and Corby
• Your journey time may be extended by up to 90 minutes.

Passengers with tickets dated today, may use their ticket to travel tomorrow, Wednesday 3 August, instead.
Alternative travel options
You may use your ticket on the following:

• CrossCountry on any reasonable route
• TransPennine Express and Northern between Sheffield and Doncaster
• Virgin Trains East Coast between Doncaster and London Kings Cross
• Virgin Trains and London Midland between Birmingham New Street and London Euston

 

[SpacePhoenix]

New pictures of the site on the BBC News site, showing how much debris landed on the tracks

 

[louis97]

Contractors drilled through a water main.

 

[Wolfie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-36950451

"The sudden collapse of a bridge has caused major disruption to trains between the East Midlands and London.

Trains between London and Nottingham, Derby and Leicester have been cancelled or delayed and replacement buses have been put in place.

The collapse, at Barrow Upon Soar, near Loughborough, happened in the early hours.

Network Rail has been working to clear the route but does not expect it to re-open quickly.

Residents said one side of the bridge had been sinking for several years and the crossing was due to be shut this week for repairs."

At least some passengers have been quite complementary about EMT:
'One commuter, who travels regularly from Leicester to Nottingham, said: "Normally, it takes me about 25 minutes [to get to work] and it has taken me two hours so far … it is a tad frustrating.

"Not really much the train company can do about it... they have been wonderful actually, they have been really helpful all the way through, can't complain.

"Hopefully, it will be alright tomorrow. "'

My bold - can't help thinking the wish from that passenger is a tad optimistic...

 

[HowardGWR]

The section of road is indeed narrow and is one way so there would be no heavy traffic passing each other.

I didn't spot that, thanks. I had wondered why there was no one-way traffic light system!

The bridges look high enough and wide enough not to need any alteration for electrification. Is that so perhaps?

 

[43074]

A revised timetable has been published - at https://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/Global/Replacement Timetable Monday 020816 v1.pdf - and EMT are saying they expect the line to remain shut for the rest of the day. More travel advice from EMT here https://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.u...ormation/DISRUPTION-Leicester---Loughborough/

To summarise the timetable

• 2tph between Leicester & London - 1tph running as per the slower Nottingham service with stops at Market Harborough, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, Luton Airport Parkway & London St Pancras, and 1tph as per the faster Nottingham service calling at Market Harborough & London St Pancras only.
• The slower Sheffield service is running as usual to Loughborough, and;
• an hourly all stations Nottingham to Loughborough service is running in the path of the Lincoln service (xx:36 from Nottingham, xx:48 from Loughborough).
• Half hourly buses are running between East Midlands Parkway, Loughborough and Leicester, with an hourly bus to serve Barrow, Sileby and Syston, although these are only for passengers using these stations - use alternative routes if travelling from North of Barrow

 

[Deepgreen]

Looking at the BBC pictures, it looks as though the bridge arch had already been subject to strengthening with 'bolts and washers'. Perhaps not enough to sustain the parapet? Just speculation.

Plus, given today's H&S regime - presumably the other arch will be closed in case of further collapse, given the proximity of the first collapse, making the four track formation redundant (I'm not familiar with the layout here, admittedly).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Contractors drilled through a water main.

Oh for...! How many more times will these clowns not co-ordinate their services' location? If I'm premature here, apologies, but this has happened too often lately on LUL...

 

[YorkshireBear]

If true, that is yet another buried services incident.... Good work.

 

[AndyW33]

Slow lines (former goods lines) have the station platforms at Barrow upon Soar. These are used by the Leicester-Loughborough-Lincoln service, and freights. The fast lines (whose bridge arch is the one damaged) are used by HST and 222 operated services from St Pancras to Nottingham/Derby/Sheffield and points north. Obviously during engineering works or disruption either pair of lines can be used for anything, but then the issue is that there is only a down slow platform (no 3) at Loughborough, no up slow.
Loughborough Platforms 1 and 2 are down and up fast respectively. There are no fast line platforms at Barrow, Sileby or Syston.
The down slow is bi-directional through platform 3 and there are crossovers so it can be used in either direction, but it obviously forms a bottleneck when expresses that need to call at Loughborough are using the slows.
Junctions between slows and fasts or vice versa are limited and if the fasts are out of commission through Barrow for any length of time but the slows were reopened, trains would have to run on the slow between Ratcliffe Jct, south of East Midlands Parkway, and Syston South Junction, about 15 miles, including the Loughborough Platform 3 pinch point. Ironically it's much easier if the slows are shut but the fasts are open.

 

[DarloRich]

Contractors drilled through a water main.

The BBC report (linked above) says:

BBC: Severn Trent said a burst water main caused by the collapse has been repaired and the water supply to homes in the area had been restored.

(My bold)

 

[studio_two]

Contractors drilled through a water main.

There appears to be a small digger amongst the pile or rubble at the bottom of the embankment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-36950451

Will they have to demolish the bridge before opening the line again?