Improvement works on Glasgow’s Subway network have been undertaken by Freyssinet Ltd.
The 119-year-old underground system, the third oldest in the world behind London and Budapest, carries 13 million passengers every year and is undergoing its first full-scale upgrade in more than 30 years.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) awarded specialist civil engineering company Freyssinet Ltd a £17 million contract to upgrade the network’s tunnel lining, as part of the subway’s £300 million modernisation project.
SPT’s Operations Committee advised Freyssinet to carry out, ‘a programme of targeted and prioritised tunnel lining works including water sealing, void filling, lining repairs and track bed repair.’
A report by the committee stated that Freyssinet Ltd, ‘was able to demonstrate that they have considerable experience of undertaking works of this nature’ and that its bid for the project was the ‘most economically advantageous.’
The bulk of the repairs to Glasgow Subway are due to take place in tunnels running between Hillhead and Buchanan Street stations in the city centre, a stretch which incorporates Kelvinbridge, St George’s Cross and Cowcaddens stations. Freyssinet will also undertake improvements in a section of tunnels on the east side of Glasgow from Shields Road to Kinning Park.
The work undertaken will total 8,019 linear metres and Freyssinet will execute works including annulus grouting, the cleaning of the tunnel lining, track bed and drainage channel, concrete and brickwork lining repairs and resin injection leak-sealing.
Additional works will be carried out in a further 6,672 linear metres and include the cleaning of the lining, followed by investigation and assessment of its condition to allow the prioritisation of subsequent phases of work.
Work on the tunnels will take place during night-time closures over a two year period. The labour force will average at 80 people, but at the peak in operations Freyssinet expects to bring 130 people into the tunnels.