A large footbridge that will, for the first time in 150 years link two sides of the wide Midland Main Line railway has started to be assembled on site at Brent Cross West station.
Brent Cross West station is a new Thameslink station being built about halfway between Cricklewood and Hendon stations and is tied in with a large housing development taking place in the area.
To link the roads on both sides of the railway a publicly accessible footbridge is being built, and when it opens, will eliminate what would otherwise be a roughly 20-minute walk to the nearest road bridge to get across the railway. The first part of the Eastern Overbridge was installed over the May bank holiday weekend, will be completed later this year and will be available for public use when the station opens next year.
First section of the footbridge (c) Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration programme
The lifted in span bridge was fabricated off-site in Doncaster and then delivered in sections to the site, where it was assembled, before being lifted into place on Saturday 1st May using a 750-ton mobile crane in the eastern site compound.
Works constructing the Eastern Entrance will start later this month.
In other news, over the April and May bank holiday weekends work has been taking place to move existing rail lines and rebuild sections of the track, to make way for the new platforms which will serve the station.
The station is due to open in December 2022.
It would be appreciated if you could give some tips to the not-so Bizzie Lizzie NR staff who, having finally installed the span for the Merrick Road footbridge in Southall at Xmas, still have yet to start on the stairways and ramps to access it. We have been waiting over five years for this replacement to be opened following its illegal closure for spurious reasons aling what is an ancient right of way that preceded the railway.
I second this, especially given all the new developments being built on Merrick road and the other side of the station