AmcoGiffen has finished a three-month programme of works at Clifton Corridor Tunnel in Pendlebury, Higher Manchester.
The tunnel received notoriety within the Nineteen Fifties when the cave in of a building shaft ended in 5 fatalities. 4 properties in the street above had been additionally misplaced.
Afterwards, the tunnel used to be closed and partly infilled however a couple of voids had been left. Those have now been stuffed to make sure the tunnel stays secure for generations to return.
Historic Railway Property (HRE) engineer Andrew Willison defined: “Nationwide Highways took over managing the HRE in 2013 and because then common protection assessments were performed at Clifton Corridor.
“We determined to fill the rest voids as a precautionary measure and to make sure the website stays secure for the long run.”
Prior to paintings began AmcoGiffen used a hollow space auto laser scanner, which used to be decreased down drill holes to offer 3-D imagery of the voids.
AmcoGiffen contracts supervisor Dave Martin mentioned: “The era is new to us as there are only a few of those in the United Kingdom. The imagery helped us to calculate the quantity of fabrics required to fill spaces of the tunnel with voids provide, certainly one of 200 metres lengthy and the opposite 150 metres lengthy.
“Each sections had 5 holes drilled that we used to insert the hollow space scanner and to pump the fabrics all through the filling degree. In general 2,200 tonnes of subject material used to be had to fill the voids.”
A mix of cement and fly ash used to be used within the voids as cement on my own could be too sturdy and would now not drift a ways sufficient, because it had to trip 30 metres. Pumping the fabrics all through the filling degree took 10 weeks, operating day shifts to stay noise to a minimal for within sight citizens.
Built within the 1846 Clifton Corridor Tunnel, which in the community took the identify of its dark-whiskered foreman ‘Black Harry’, shaped a part of the Patricroft to Molyneux Junction line and is a double observe horseshoe formed tunnel measuring 1187 metres lengthy and coated all through with brick. Its building used to be tough from the start as the bottom used to be very risky the place mining had already taken position.
The encompassing space used to be topic to intense urbanisation with the desire for houses being constructed immediately above the tunnel and there have been a number of rounds of remedial works together with the addition of metal ribbing to offer further strengthen.
Following a partial cave in on 13th April 1953 all trains had been stopped and inspection performed. Two weeks later the tunnel roof failed, immediately underneath an previous building shaft.
Witness accounts from citizens dwelling above the tunnel described listening to a noisy cracking noise at 5:35am, adopted via two properties, numbers 22 and 24 Temple Power, collapsing to the bottom. 5 folks had been killed and the tunnel used to be by no means reopened. It used to be partly infilled however a couple of voids had been left.
It has taken till 2025, greater than 70 years later, for an enduring repair to be performed.
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