Sujeet Chandra

Said the following about Bristol East Junction Renewal: South Rail Systems Alliance (SRSA):

“Service Offered: Design and Build (D&B), Rail Systems Integration, Project Management, Planning and Survey, Detailed Design on E&P, Track, Civil & Structural & Environment, Consents and Sustainability

During the summer of 2021, the SRSA successfully completed Bristol Rail Regeneration. This included upgrading and renewing a dated track layout, whilst removing a major bottleneck on the approach to Bristol Temple Meads (BTM). The clever new layout allows trains to use the station more easily, resulting in less delays and better journeys for over 11 million passengers that use this Grade 1 listed station every year.

The SRSA is a dedicated, efficient, and hardworking team that undertakes design, assurance and build in an Alliance between AECOM, Network Rail and Colas Rail. An eight week blockade minimized the disruption of the railway whilst allowing freight and passenger movement throughout the upgrade of Bristol East Junction. The layout improvements included rationalizing the number of Switches and Crossing (S&C) units from 58 existing to 50 proposed together with multi-disciplinary works in a challenging environment. This project delivered an enhanced renewal and optimized layout through timetable capacity analysis aligned with stakeholder requirements, to accommodate the growth in services and provide improved operability, maintainability, reliability, and accessibility. A provision has been made for additional connections into the future proposed Platform 0, and the extension of a spur to a bay platform. Therefore, this upgrade will meet future enhanced train services for both long distance and local services across the greater Bristol area.

Safety excellence is paramount in the SRSA contract, and the delivery of this project during the pandemic presented significant safety and wellbeing challenges for workers and public using the railway. The SRSA is the industry leader in developing COVID secure safety procedures and putting measures in place to keep the workplace safe. Our exemplary safety culture is cultivated from the top, led by the Alliance Director with safety conversations, briefings and weekly safety calls with the whole Alliance team. Various safety measures were applied to keep passengers and workers safe. Alliance boot camps, MyZone worker alert system, safety briefings, and the use of the Alliance safety app (Call-Action-Report-Learn or CARL) for ease of raising close calls are just some of the initiatives that the SRSA use. They all support the drive for continuous safety improvement. The severe heat wave in the first week of the blockade resulted in the installation of several hydration points on site.

This complex scheme was executed in a hub and spoke model, with Network Rail acting as the hub. NR were responsible for integrating all appointed contractors such as the SRSA, Alstom and AMCO through the interdisciplinary review (IDR) process. Due to multiple interfacing projects affecting the implementation of this project, we developed a fully integrated programme covering detailed design and delivery, and this allowed integrated management during the project lifecycle, allowing the multiple construction stages and advance work requirements due to access constraints to be captured within the design programme.

Examples of technical excellence and cost saving initiatives employed on this major infrastructure project include:

• Modular S&C units delivered on modular tilting wagons to minimize the impact on the operational railway. A targeted approach from the SRSA to modular rationalization was undertaken to reduce modular layouts where practicable. Where it was deemed a requirement to use a modular layout, a hybrid bearer approach was adopted, where through bearers were designed in areas of high lateral and vertical loading, removing the potential stress areas where modular splice plates would have previously been situated. This methodology was extrapolated across the junction layout so the approach to installation could be standardized whilst maintaining the existing delivery rationale using modular tilting wagons.

• Standardized layouts: A fully standardized layout using NR56v S&C configuration and a high-performance switch system (HPSS) was utilized. This modernized and rationalized layout resulted in an improved six approach tracks instead of five.

• Ballast protection: All 50-point ends across the junction, including adjacent associate plain line track, were fitted under sleeper/bearer pads to increase the ballast lifespan. These pads increase the ballast contact area, reducing the overall whole life cost through a reduction in the requirement to re-ballast this critical area.

• A new 12 terminal points heating transformer: Our experienced Electrical & Plant team challenged the points heating standard requirements and worked with Network Rail to achieve Product Approval of this transformer for use with HPSS points. This halved the quantity of transformers required through standard designs, providing installation and material cost savings of over £150k.

• Progressive Integration: The SRSA designs were integrated with designs produced by other organizations at bi-weekly Design Construction Integration (DCI) forums. This enabled the entire project team to gain early visibility, early Contractor input, early clash detection and quick resolution of integration issues, resulting in more cost-effective design solutions. Some of the key designs were issued as early as 10 weeks before the start of the construction.

• Minimizing nuisance: Several best practicable means to reduce noise, vibration, lighting nuisance and visual impact were implemented by SRSA during works. These included the use of hybrid and solar powered lighting towers, dust suppression units, acoustic barriers, temporary hoarding along platforms at BTM Station and temporary hoarding at Dings Park access point. Remote noise monitoring during the blockade works provided real time noise data to the delivery team, allowing them to implement immediate mitigation and control measures to prevent reoccurrence of such noise or vibration nuisance.

• Corporate Social Responsibility: community day activity with Dings Park Youth Club and residents. The result of our local engagement included flower planting along fence line at Dings Park by several SRSA staff volunteers.“