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Riverina locals will see an army of rail workers hit the rail line over the next few weeks, preparing for and delivering millions of dollars of essential railway maintenance work, the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) said today.
“Preparations are already underway in earnest, delivering rail, preparing scaffolding and dropping off supplies, before we start the mammoth rail maintenance program,” an ARTC spokesperson said.
From Friday 2 September until 6pm Tuesday 6 September ARTC employees and its contractors will deliver dozens of projects at worksites across the rail network from the Southern Highlands right through the Riverina to Albury.
“This work is critical to ensuring the safety and reliability of the rail network, and is part of our annual maintenance program,” the spokesperson said.
“While we previously delivered this major shutdown maintenance work in the Christmas period, this year based on feedback from our customers, we are delivering it during September to minimise disruption on the train running program over the course of the year.
Rail maintenance work including re-railing, bridge works, turnout replacements, track undercutting and signalling maintenance will take place.
ARTC also has heavy rail grinding track machines operating in a continuous basis from the Sydney metropolitan area right through to Albury.
“While most of the work will be delivered during daylight hours, the nature of some projects means some work will unavoidably take place overnight.
“Sometimes we need to conduct work in a continuous fashion during a maintenance shutdown because it is the only way to deliver the pure size of the project efficiently and safely.
“It is much safer for us to package the work to be delivered in a set window of time when there are either no, or fewer, trains running.
“It’s also far more efficient to package the vast amount of work needed into a single five-day period rather than spread over many weeks and in-between live running rail traffic.
“We’d like to thank the community for their patience with us while this important work is delivered.
“We would also like to advise motorists to take care, slow down and be cautious of trucks entering and exiting work sites around the rail corridor from 30 August through to 6 September.”
While ARTC is working to minimise impacts on passenger services as much as possible, please visit www.nswtrainlink.info for specific information on what train services may see replacement buses.
Media contact: Bas Bolyn, ARTC, 0477 340 658
http://www.artc.com.au/community/track-work/
Major traffic disruption in Wagga Wagga due to rail maintenance work
- ARTC is replacing 645 metres of railway track in the heart of Wagga Wagga during this rail maintenance shutdown.
- It includes re-railing at two rail overbridges at Tarcutta Street and the Sturt Highway rail bridge.
- There will be major traffic disruption and alternative traffic arrangements around the Sturt Highway, Tarcutta Street and Hammond Avenue. This includes road closures and heavy detours.
- There will be traffic management in place and traffic management boards are already out in place, but motorists are advised to avoid the area if possible and seek alternative routes.
- Scaffolding work will be conducted at night so as to avoid major traffic impacts and the bulk of re-railing activity will be conducted on Sunday 4 September – full road closures at Tarcutta Street (from 12pm) and Hammond Avenue (From 6am) will be in effect.
- Scaffolding removal will take place during the evening (overnight) from Monday 5 to Thursday 8 September (inclusive).