It would require the design of some bespoke components and some different masts to fit the tensioning equipment to, and as I say, it breaches the core design criteria of not running tail wires over adjacent tracks. That's going to be costly at this late stage, but if the local council and park authority were to pay the costs, it could be viable.
Today's news that DfT has agreed to a 30% budget reduction pretty much guarantees what's happening though - there's now no way the DfT or Network Rail will be able to afford changing the portals on the route, and I believe this is what you're likely to be told. There might be some money left for a little tree planting, but beyond that, it's game over for your challenges, I'm afraid, unless someone else covers NR's costs here.
PHILIP
As always, genuine Thanks for your reply at least it is technically possible, then
.Although I completely agree with you that it is highly unlikely that this will be offered or suggested by NR given the massive delays and £1.7bn (and counting) overspend that this Project has already managed to rack up
.
However, to expect the Parish Councils or the AONBs to pay for the additional works is obviously a non-starter (pay the extra costs themselves for NRs forgetfulness ??? ) so the challenges will continue
.
Legal advice received so far is that NR have not followed statutory procedures and have not complied with the requirements of their own Environmental Statement produced by Atkins in 2012 therefore it is worth taking the case to court if NR do not provide mutually acceptable solutions to the mess which they have now got themselves into
.
Timely consultation, compromise and agreement with the AONBs and residents of the Goring Gap on the design and mitigation before the engineering work started ( as is happening in Bath ) would have been the correct statutory procedure and probably would have been able to achieve a successful outcome for everyone
.
But quite simply, NR have failed in this respect
.
As it now stands, the courts would probably be asked to decide whether NR
(1) Were simply incompetent in being unaware of their statutory requirements, although this is highly unlikely
.
(2) Were aware of their statutory requirements and social responsibilities but deliberately chose to ignore them, for whatever reason
.
(3) Took a strategic decision to push these under the carpet, and start the engineering works in the Goring Gap as soon as possible, and then deal with any problems later if the sh*t hit the fan, in order not to delay completion of the Test Track and therefore win back a bit of credibility once the full Projects likely delays and cost overspends became known internally within NR
.
Ill leave you guys to decide which
.