Incredible pictures of M62 show the ongoing work which has closed the motorway

These incredible pictures show how work which has closed the M62 is developing. The otherwise bustling motorway near Rochdale can be seen to be eerily quiet, as a key stage in the £22 million project gets underway.

For the first time in recent memory a section of the M62 motorway has been closed for a full weekend, and will re-open at 6am on Monday. The traffic has made way for Network Rail, with workers set to dismantle the old Castleton bridge and take it away on the M62.

The new bridge will then be installed during the a second weekend closure between September 20 and 23. Engineers have been working to prepare the bridge for its installation.

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Work has been centred at a site just beyond Manchester Golf Club in Middleton, next to the motorway. Two 42 metre, 70 tonne steel beams were ferried from Ireland and delivered via the M62 during an overnight closure last month.

The railway will be closed until the early morning of September 25 between Manchester Victoria and Rochdale while the bridge is replaced. Rail replacement buses will be in operation.

Olivia Boland, Network Rail sponsor, explained details of the project to the M.E.N. prevously. She said: “The main construction will be complete by September 25 this year. It is very common for us to use Saturday nights for our works when the trains are not running, so there will be some follow ups to finish the welding and stressing on the track.

“The railway will open with a small speed restriction on it (50mph) and then after five to six weeks when the railway works are done it will reopen to line speed of 75mph.

“This is a sped up project given the fact the bridge isn’t in the best condition and is deteriorating. We used specialist designers with lots of experience - getting good heads together.

“It’s quite difficult to say (how much longer the current bridge would last), you can’t put a timeline on it but we have been instructed to replace it within two years. That doesn’t mean it will fall down catastrophically, but that it is just recommended to be replaced.

“We (Network Rail) replace bridges all the time but this size and scale, over the motorway, is something we don’t do that often, especially in the north west. It is quite a novelty for us to do - it’s probably one of the first in the north west for us to replace a motorway bridge.”