Hungerford Railway Bridge Refurbishment

We’ll be carrying out essential work to refurbish the Hungerford railway bridge.

Many of the bridges, tunnels and viaducts on Britain’s railway are from the Victorian era. Being responsible for this national heritage is both a privilege and a challenge.

Some of these structures are very old, so are vulnerable to weather conditions and often need to be renewed.

Project timeline

The work is due to start from January 2025 and is expected to be completed by the end of winter 2028.

What work is taking place?

In the first phase, we will be erecting scaffolding around the bridge and then enclosing the scaffold.

The works for the first 3 months will be scaffolding, with the main painting works starting around May 2025.

We will then prepare and paint the bridge, test the truss pins and remove the caps at the end of the girders. The original metalwork will be retained and refurbished.

To avoid creating extra traffic and the resulting pollution, we will use barges to deliver and remove waste materials to Surrey Pier for the works.  

This will avoid the equivalent of 6 truck freight deliveries through central London a week.   

When is the work taking place?

The refurbishment work will be carried out in two phases with the first phase commencing on the spans on the Southbank and the south side of the river from January 2025 to January 2026.

The second phase of the works will be the main refurbishment works which will take place on the remaining spans across the river from January 2026 to end of winter 2028.

There will be additional weekend closures in 2026-2028, however the dates have yet to be confirmed.

How will this work affect me?

We won’t need to close the bridge to trains as whenever possible, we will work at times that cause the least disruption to train services.

This means we are carrying out some of our work during the night.

Why is the work needed?

The current bridge, comprising spans made of wrought iron lattice girders, opened in 1864.

With such old infrastructure, it’s important that we maintain the bridge so that we can make sure we can run a safe and reliable railway for our passengers.

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please call our dedicated 24-hour National Helpline on 03457 11 41 41 quoting Hungerford Railway Bridge Refurbishment Works or visit our contact us page.