The month of November saw Kelly Rail involved in a significant, multidisciplinary Bridge Replacement project with Bam Nuttall in Moy, in the Scottish Highlands. The Moy Rail Bridge Replacement is required to enable the dual carriageway upgrade from Tomatin to Moy. The scheme is in place to widen the 9km road as part of the overall improvements to the A9 between Perth and Inverness which will improve road access and infrastructure to the north of Scotland.
Kelly Rail had a significant part to play in this collaboration scheme and it was our role to manage the existing Signalling and Telecoms assets currently in situ and ensure that following the completion of the civils works to ensure that they were handed back into service on time.
The bulk of the work was planned to be completed over a 78-hour possession, the outset of which was Kelly Rail disconnecting and securing all the Signalling and Telecoms cables and train detecting track circuity prior to the 670 Tonne bridge being installed by the Bam Nuttall Team. Once this was completed it was our role to reinstate all the assets we had removed before testing back into service.
Collaboration was key to the overall successful delivery of this project, over the course of the blockade over 200 staff from multiple contractors worked together to ensure that the tight programme was achieved. In addition to the already ambitious programme, events attempted to conspire against the team by throwing Storm Arwan into the mix, with 90mph Winds and temperatures dropping to -8C the team genuinely had to battle the elements to get this project over the line.
The weather and supply chain issues did at one point of blockade cause the programme to slip by 12 hours, however with the teams on site managed to drag this back and ended up handing the railway back for use almost 2 hours early. Huw Jones, Divisional Director, Rail, BAM Nuttall said: “Our team faced some really challenging conditions over the course of this weekend, having to deal with some of the worst winter weather we have ever experienced on a rail blockade. The safe, successful, on-time delivery of this project is a tribute to the commitment and close collaboration of our team and the meticulous preparation undertaken in the run-up to this possession.”
The Kelly Rail team has been supporting Bam Nuttal Projects for a number of years now, however this particular scheme was a first for us in that we were responsible for multiple asset types, covering Signalling, 650v Power and Telecoms. The success of this project on our side was based on the diverse skillsets and competencies within the team, some of which we have only brought into the business in the last 6 months. We are hoping that this is an example of our service offering diversifying and evolving and that we can continue to develop moving into 2022.
