Major delays for Wigan as Railway Bridge Demolition works not carried out by Buckingham Group.

Network Rail engineers have released a revised schedule of works to replace a road bridge over the railway in Hindley Wigan after earlier demolition work was unable to take place. Staff from Buckingham Group had been working on the demolition and replacement of a road bridge on Ladies Lane, Hindley, since March as part of the £78m programme to electrify 13 miles of track between Lostock Junction and Wigan North Western. But they downed tools on the 18th August when the firm filed a notice to appoint administrators, due to “deep losses and interim cash deficits” on four major projects, including the redevelopment of Liverpool FC’s Anfield Stadium.

Since the start of works in March 23 Ladies Lane has been closed off, so shut basically for an entire 6 months! This lane is extremely useful for commuters who want to miss the traffic chaos on the already heavily burdened A577 road. Indeed, it is taking motorists over an additional hour to do a 7-mile journey. Stations at Hindley & Ince have also been temporarily closed. J Murphy & Sons have been appointed to finish off the work at Ladies Lane and local residents are sincerely hoping that Murphys will pull out all the stops to get both the road and station opened up again very soon.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Since the announcement about Buckingham Group last week, we’ve been working hard to find a way for work at Ladies Lane in Hindley to continue.

“With the project so close to completion we’ve made it a priority to find an alternative contractor, with J Murphy and Sons now appointed to finish off the work at Ladies Lane.

“The unexpected delay does mean the road won’t reopen as planned on September 1, but we will be working hard with the new contractor to get the work completed as soon as we can.”

The work at Hindley station forms part of the programme to electrify the railway line between Bolton and Wigan and has seen the bridge on Ladies Lane being demolished and rebuilt so there will be space for the overhead wires needed.

The platforms at the station are being extended to increase capacity for passengers and cater for longer trains.

Image Credit Network Rail Aerial photography

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