METRO PROBLEM SOLVED, NEW LINES RECONSIDERED
The Midland Metro will return to the city centre in March, it was announced this week, as bosses re-visit proposals for new lines across the Black Country.
The laying of new Metro tram tracks over former mineworkings in Wolverhampton city centre has resumed after engineers devised a way of tackling the unstable and potentially dangerous site.
They were uncovered on Bilston Road between the junctions with Steelhouse Lane and Hospital Street in November as work progressed on replacing worn out tram tracks.
After intensive efforts to find a safe way of building over the mine, work is now underway with tram services scheduled to resume running into the St Georges terminus in March.
The old mineworkings were up to 40ft feet deep and filled with loose, uncompacted building rubble, and are thought to date as far back as the Industrial Revolution, when coal and iron ore was mined extensively across the Black Country.
Centro, the regions public transport co-ordinator which is behind the £4.5m track improvement scheme, consulted with specialist engineering consultants to assess how best to deal with them.
It also sought advice from other light rail systems in the UK and around the world to see if they had ever dealt with a similar problem and to identify the best solution.
Midland Metro programme director Paul Griffiths said at some point down the years the workings had been filled in with old building rubble then covered over without being marked on any known map or documents.
The problem was that rubble was not compacted down, it was thrown in loose and covered over, and over time loose rubble shifts and creates voids, he said.
Having installed a modern new crossover south of The Royal we came to remove the foundation from the previous crossover and thats when we found the mine workings.
The timetable had already been hit by the discovery of unmarked public utility pipes and the discovery that the original track slab was not as strong as designed and required additional work to ensure it does not deteriorate in the future.
Originally planned to open in November, The Royal opened the following month but an announcement on when services would resume to St Georges could not be made until the evaluation of the workings and design of a solution was completed.
Cllr Roger Horton, Centro lead member for rail, said: The delays have been incredibly frustrating and we recognise the impact they have had on users of the Midland Metro for which we apologise.
However these works have had to be done. An operational tram system has to have secure foundations, and now that this is being done the Midland Metro will provide Wolverhampton with a system it can be proud of for years to come.
Meanwhile transport bosses have announce a review of plans to open new rail and metro lines across the Black Country.
