Reconstructing Ford End Road Bridge

The electrification of the Midland Main Line requires some of the structures which lie along the route to be reconstructed to provide sufficient clearance for 25,000 volt Overhead Line Equipment to be positioned safely beneath.
Among the structures requiring reconstruction is Ford End Road Bridge to the south of Bedford Central station - a 19 span brick arch carrying Ford End Road over the Midland Main Line. The third span of the bridge from the west had insufficient clearance and so was carefully removed and replaced with a modern bridge deck made of pre-cast concrete units.
The bridge is almost complete - with brickwork, reinstatement of utilities and road re-surfacing to be completed by 31 July. More info - www.networkrail.co.uk/midlandmainline
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[@flippop101]

I find these films very impressive. The project and site management seems impeccable. Compliments from Germany!

[@hendog3894]

Love the mix of old and new

[@peebee143]

Driven over that old bridge many, many times.

[@clivemortimore8203]

Back in the late 60s myself and my mates use to trainspot at Midland Road on a Saturday morning, before heading home we would go over Ford end Road Bridge to the old loco shed. If we miss timed it there would be thousands of Allen workers heading towards on their push bikes after Saturday morning overtime.

[@Tobberz]

Glad it was relaxed in brick.

[@neiljamie3122]

I know it's kinda off topic but do anybody know a good place to watch newly released tv shows online ?

[@harleymalcolm4689]

@Neil Jamie I use FlixZone. Just google for it =)

[@piercenikolai4551]

@Harley Malcolm Definitely, I have been watching on FlixZone for years myself :)

[@neiljamie3122]

@Harley Malcolm thank you, I signed up and it seems to work :) I appreciate it!

[@harleymalcolm4689]

@Neil Jamie glad I could help xD

[@tonyblackie3277]

Hey great work, be great to have seen the view from the lines not just the road of the finished product.

[@steesimons37]

Unfortunately, getting camera crew on the open lines isn't always the most convenient or safest option.

[@beckster181]

While there is a true need for these modernizations it is just a pity they take away a structure of undoubted character and replace it with a concrete monstrosity to look at. They did a great job of making it look better at road level but from the rail side it shows pure concrete that will stand out forever as an eyesore when it would have been so simple to have the outer parts of the new structure patterned to look like brickwork when formed and had the concrete coloured to make it look more like the replaced brick structure. This would have made it look less NEW for now though and so not look so startling an upgrade, but when all is considered in the long term these improvements will draw these criticisms from future generations when they look back with 20/20 hindsight and saw this is how it should have been done. We ourselves do it when we look at some of the historical structures that have been replaced with so called MODERN ones and say we prefer the past structures. Imagine if they decided to replace Tower Bridge with a modern equivalent that would handle more traffic but would just become another concrete bridge in London because it was needed and looked modern how would people feel about loosing such a great and impressive bridge simply to make things better for traffic? The answer is that the people would never stand for it and would fight at every level to prevent it! While I dont know the area of this replaced rail structure at all it seems to me they went cheap on the replacement as it does nothing for the road users or pedestrians, only the rail is improved. If they had taken away the whole bridge and widened it to make it better for road users,pedestrians and the rail it would have been a win all round, though i expect they had trouble with only replacing so little of the bridge with locals. This again brings me back to my original premise that if they had considered ways to make the replaced structure more widely beneficial to more people AND not look like some modern eyesore of plain concrete they could have replaced the whole structure with added benefits to locals and stopped the eyesore claim. This is where there is a problem world wide with making something one way for structural engineering reasons and not thinking of the design from a LOOK engineering point of view. For the world to maintain a good LOOK and FEEL for us living in it we must consider these 2 things equally and we see if in how the tube/overground/Purple line have all been designed to LOOK and FEEL more than just a modern take on an old way of doing things. Imagine if the whole Elizabeth Line was just made of pre-caste block of concrete and not dressed up in anyway because it is MODERN and much cheaper to do this way how many people that are so caught up in this new line would hate it instead of love it.

[@maxthompson231]

Calm down mate

[@xaiano794]

I wonder if you are willing to pay for such a structure? The main reason these are pre-cast concrete is time, building another brick arch takes months of work, requiring the line to be closed for literally months - this would be at a cost (on such a busy line) of many millions of pounds, cause months of travel disruption and that's before we even consider the cost of the labour to construct the bridge itself. So many people such as you are ready to bemoan the use of cheaper techniques and materials but are completely unwilling to see so much as a penny of their own money going to pay for the projects they advocate.

[@jamesgreen3417]

Any idea when Bromham Bridge works begin?

[@richardgoode5657]

A counting of the fund to a region as a funding.

[@ScottishNSRailFan]

Bridge improvements for the next generation. I trust all the down takings are recycled?

[@chrisharding5783]

How long was the possession?

[@stephendines1936]

Bedford Central station?

[@nickcollins7568]

That bridge lies at the south end of the station under which the lines were already electrified. So this makes no sense!!!

[@routemaster3877]

not all lines are electrified. the end arch is lower than the rest

[@josephbrennan-davison]

Could have at least got the same shade brick as it looks awful.

[@me282uk]

Welcome to the principle of weathering and it time it takes to make new things look like old things.....

[@josephbrennan-davison]

me282uk As you just stated, it will take a long time to weather. But because they now use cheap materials for convenience it will end up being replaced in 10 years due to corrosion or being a weak structure.

[@stufindlow6664]

What the bridge looks like from the outside face must have been so bad they couldn't show it. Great shame. The original was awesome

[@xaiano794]

it is the same shade, it weathers over time - engineering bricks.

[@jeremycaldecoat1699]

Can we have the side walls even taller and add extra palisade fence to the top I mean nobody wants to see trains anymore let alone be able to photo or video one these days.

[@grigzie]

Graffiti on a bridge before it was built.

[@ianvirco5897]

The words sprayed on the bridge were 'East Cill' which i think was the engineers identification method.

[@clivemortimore8203]

The Graffiti is on the footbridge which is alongside the road bridge. I think it was in the 80s when the pavement on the road bridge was done away with and the foot bridge added. Cars were getting fatter.