Works costing £4.8m aimed at stopping rail disruption at the Slochd
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Work is about to get under way on a final phase of embankment and drainage work at Slochd between Perth and Inverness on the Highland main railway line.
The £4.8 million project, which will be on-going until November will help protect against landslips and rockfall.
It will also address a known flooding risk area at the high pass which has caused delay and cancellation to passenger journeys twice in the last 12 months.
Work will see installation of a new piped drainage system and earth-bunds, as well as concrete lined ditches to manage the flow of water away from the railway to culverts and natural water courses.
The project, which is being delivered over two kilometres of railway has been on site at Slochd since September, last year, and has targeted known areas of embankment with a history of instability and prone to rock-fall and flooding.
To date, the project has utilised 11,000 tonnes of stone to regrade more than 400 metres of railway embankment which is 14 metres high in sections. In addition, more than 840 metres of concrete lined drainage channels have been created and rock-netting has been installed where required.
Some 110 metres of ballast retention has also been added to support the crest at the top of the embankments and to provide a new secure cable troughing route on the side of the line.
Mark Wilson, Network Rail’s project manager for the work at Slochd, said: “The unpredictable nature of the Scottish weather means that storms or flooding can happen at any time of the year.
“Milder and wetter weather means that drainage in some areas is no longer fit for purpose and can get overwhelmed.
"We are proactively replacing and increasing the capacity of drains and culverts to manage the larger volumes of water coming onto the railway from adjacent land on a more frequent basis.
“Work at the Slochd will address a flooding issue which has caused the line to be closed twice in the past 12 months; once due to snow melt and the other due to an August storm.
"It will also ensure that the surrounding drainage and embankments are future-proofed to protect the railway from the impact of increasingly unpredictable weather.”
Network Rail stressed work at Slochd is being delivered in line with government advice on physical distancing using additional protective equipment.
