Fewer lorries for rail work at Westerleigh Rd
The latest estimate from Network Rail is that they will need to bring in 300 lorry loads of material, rather than a thousand as we were originally told. That must be good news.
They were talking about three lorries in and out per hour, but probably a bit less now because the deliveries will be over a period of about four weeks. That means an average of about 15 lorries a day.
We'll keep you posted about any further developments.
Nice to see that the 1000 lorries has been reduced to a mere 300, but why do they need to use any? There is a railway close by which could be used. This link may be interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freightonrail.org.uk/FactsFigures.htm
I'm guessing here, but I can think of two possible reasons. If they use rail to bring the material in they would have to close off the line while they unload, and I imagine you can't just pour the srone down the embankment. They're trying to build the embankment up gradually so that it will be stable.
ReplyDeleteMy other thought is that it could depend on the source of the stone. If it's local, our local quarries not having rail links, it might involve more lorry miles to get the material to a railhead where they can load it.
But on the other hand, we do see all those quarry trains rattling down the main line.
Thanks for that interesting link - the rest of that site is worth browsing too. Shows the need for more of a national strategy.
Just a note on the arithmetic of this case:
ReplyDeleteIf you divide 13,000 tonnes by 1000 lorries you get 13 tonnes per lorry. A Volvo FE 26 tonne, 6 wheel tipper has a capacity of approx 18.2 tonnes, which gives a total of 714.3 truck loads.
And if you divide 13,000 tonnes by 300 lorries you get 43.3 tonnes per lorry, which is a very big lorry!
I think they've reduced the amount of material from the original estimate. I would assume 300 x 18 tonnes-ish, or about half the figure we heard originally. They don't appear to be giant lorries at the moment.
ReplyDelete