August 2025 saw the 21-day closure of the railway through Stockport, as part of the £20 million scheme to rebuild the Greek Street bridge (CMP2/1A) over the five-track electrified West Coast Main Line (WCML). The bridge is located just south of Stockport station on Engineers Line Route (ELR) CMP2 at 294.181km (182 miles, 1425 yards).
Further south of Greek Street bridge the route splits into the Chester / Hope Valley and Buxton routes, and a few miles further south at Cheadle Hulme are the WCML routes from Crewe and Stoke-on-Trent. This means the line closure had a big impact on train services. Due to other works taking place there were no train services between Manchester and Stoke on Trent during this blockade. To make the project even more difficult, immediately above Greek Street bridge is a large roundabout connecting four major road routes crossing Stockport.
Originally, Greek Street was a tunnel arrangement, but when the line was electrified in the late 1950s there was insufficient clearance for the wires, and the tunnels were removed and replaced with a concrete beam structure bridge. Now, 67 years later, the 1950s design had reached the end of its life, and it was decided that the best option was to close the route to enable the bridge removal and reconstruction. It was also decided not to run a shuttle train service between Manchester and Stockport to enable other heavy maintenance and renewals to be undertaken in the three-week blockade.
Fortunately, there was another route to Manchester from Crewe via Wilmslow and the Styal Line, so this provided trains from London and Birmingham (for example) to reach Manchester throughout the closure period.
Other blockade works
The other work delivered during the blockade was across approximately 50 miles of the WCML between Staffordshire and Stockport. It involved an additional £23 million of investment and included the following major interventions:
- Strengthening and waterproofing River Trent Viaduct in Stone.
- Work to upgrade the power supply to overhead lines in Stockport.
- Track renewals in Stone, Hixon and Congleton.
- Railway point replacement in Macclesfield.
- Platform work at Poynton station.
- Railway drainage upgraded at Trentham.
- A new footbridge at Longport station.
Alongside these main worksites, a number of smaller but equally important maintenance activities took place, including upgrades to signal boxes and level crossings.
The new bridge
The design of the new bridge includes 10 concrete cills, 22 steel beams, six concrete beams, and 13 parapet wall sections made of concrete and faced with brick to match the previous bridge colour. Murphy was the main contractor working on behalf of Network Rail, along with subcontractors including: Ainscough, Corecut, ISS, Sword, Attridge, and designers Tony Gee and Partners.
The precast concrete components were manufactured at the Shay Murtagh Raharney, Co. Westmeath facility in Ireland and integrated with the purpose-designed steel units. A full trial assembly took place before delivery to address any unforeseen issues and ensure each section would fit perfectly when installed. A convoy of 40 lorries and low-loaders carried the concrete and steel components by ferry from Dublin to Liverpool. The components’ construction was carefully planned so they were delivered directly to site or stored at Trafford Park near Manchester.
Similar to all major projects of this type, the work to replace the bridge started much earlier, with preparation work commencing in 2024. Last December, a scaffold bridge was erected at the side of the bridge to divert all the important utilities and to ensure that residents and local businesses remained connected during the main work. Between March and August 2025, the project team worked closely with utility companies to divert all the important services onto the temporary scaffold bridge, the Greek Street roundabout and nearby roads closing for one year on 31 March.
The bridge also supported a large number of Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) bridge arm supports and 10 wire runs for the five tracks including several crossovers, so the OLE conductors required to be lowered, protected and covered with a temporary crash deck for the duration of the demolition works.
The 200 old concrete beams were then removed using two huge crawler cranes with a combined capacity of 1,300 tonnes and a lifting height of 196 metres. The redundant bridge beams were placed to the ground and taken off site by a fleet of 67 heavy goods vehicles. The new large steel and concrete beams were driven piece by piece and escorted by police escort and craned into position over a four-day period.
The new bridge structure was made up of 51 parts which were moved into position by the crawler cranes. A concrete deck was then poured on top. The new bridge deck was lower than the original, so the OLE system beneath the bridge needed to be lower to maximise electrical clearances as much as possible, whilst maintaining a compliant contact wire height beneath the bridge. Once this and other railway equipment was reinstated, the line reopened as planned on 23 August for the bank holiday weekend.
Built to last
About 400 passenger and 50 freight services pass under the bridge each day and the replacement has been designed with a life expectancy of 120 years. Over the coming months, further railway closures will be required to allow the project team to continue the work. This will involve removing the redundant wall in the centre of the tracks and reinstating the road and walls on the roundabout which sits on top of the bridge. Once utility services are diverted back from their temporary scaffold bridge into the new structure, the road can be relayed and the roundabout is planned to reopen in Spring 2026.
Image credit: Network Rail
