Piling – Information from Network Rail – 10 July 2017 

I have recently been in contact with Network Rail regarding future piling work that is necessary as part of their work to electrify the South Wales Mainline to London. As part of the project, Network Rail need to undertake piling work to install the Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) that will power the new electric trains.  In order to install the OLE, NR have been working to create the foundations required to carry the posts undertaken by a method called piling. 

Piling Work 

Piling involves the driving of cylindrical steel piles into the ground, undertaken using road / rail vehicles with attached hammers.  This grips the pile and vibrates and/or hits it deep into the ground with – dependent on ground conditions – an average pile taking between 20 and 60 minutes.  

Piling on the South Wales Mainline has been ongoing since last year and is expected to continue until later this year. 

Network Rail plan to carry out piling through the daytime on Wednesday 12 July until Friday 14 July, on the section of track between Beresford Road and Splott Bridge. 

They will also continue to pile in this area during night time on the weekends of; 

Saturday 8 July until Monday 10 July 

Saturday 15 July until Thursday 20 July 

Saturday 22 July 

Saturday 29 July until Sunday 30 July 

For safety reasons, work of this type must be carried out while trains are not running; this means carrying out a lot of work during the night.  Piling by its nature is a very noisy activity, with noise levels dependent on distance from the piling location and local topography.  Network Rail have assured me that they will make every effort to minimise unnecessary noise and complete each pile as quickly as possible.   

If you have any specific concerns about this work, please don’t hesitate to contact me using jo.stevens.mp@parliament.uk and I will raise your concerns directly with Network Rail. 

http://www.jostevens.co.uk/piling_information_from_network_rail 

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