A PIONEERING machine, used only a handful of times in the UK, has helped lay tracks in a key rail project to create a fast route into the Port of Liverpool.
The tracks for the £7.9m Olive Mount Chord project were laid from Olive Mount Junction to Edge Lane Junction in Liverpool using Balfour Beattie’s giant new track construction machine.
The project is to create a key freight link between the Port of Liverpool and the West Coast Main Line.
The scheme involves reopening a disused stretch of railway line, linking the Bootle line with the line to London and Manchester.
Neil Scales, chief executive of Merseytravel, said: “Work is progressing well and this is an important step forward in a nationally significant project that will help to improve access to the Port of Liverpool.
“It will mean better access for trains to and from Liverpool, as well as places in the north of England and beyond.
“Locally, it should also reduce the number of lorries using the road network.”
Contractor for the works, First Engineering, took possession of the rail line to lay the stretch of track from the Chat Moss line, through the disused 1882 Olive Mount Tunnel, up to a new exit on the Bootle Branch that carries freight trains to Seaforth Docks.
Merseytravel is contributing £5.6m to the project, which is supported by Network Rail, the Northwest Regional Development Agency, district councils and the European Regional Development Fund.
