Train services resumed on Monday between Dover and Folkestone in Kent after completion of a new 235m long concrete viaduct. The new structure replaces a sea wall that had carried the railway since the 1840s and was badly damaged by high tides last December.

 

The viaduct is supported by 134 concrete columns and is designed to protect against similar weather incidents for the next 120 years. Work was carried out by Costain and the project cost £40M.

 

Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke, who chaired a task force to replace the wall, described completion of the job in just nine months as “a remarkable feat of British engineering”.

 

“Christmas Eve was a dark day for our community, when the sea wall at Dover failed,” he wrote on his blog. “It had been hoped that a running repair could be made. Unfortunately the Victorian timber viaduct the rails originally ran on had rotted away. An entirely new viaduct had to be built on massive piles driven deep into chalk bedrock. It has been a very big job.”

 

Rail Minister Paul Maynard said on the completion of the work: “This is excellent news for Southeastern passengers who have had to put up with major disruption since the severe storms last December.”

 

Network Rail’s asset management director Alan Ross said: “I would like to offer my gratitude and appreciation to all of those who have played a part in making this possible and would like to thank passengers for bearing with us.”

 

(Photo: Network Rail)