Adam Street Bridge reopened following completion of £4.3 million repair programme

Transport for Wales has reopened Cardiff’s Adam Street Bridge to passenger services following the completion of a £4.3m programme to restore and repair the 130-year-old bridge.

The section of the bridge which carried the direct line from Queen Street station to Cardiff Bay has been closed since March 2021 and was in significant need of repair due to corrosion damage.

The damage resulted in restrictions on the load-bearing capacity of the bridge and speed restrictions in place for train services.

Phil Rawlings, Head of Asset Management at TfW, said: “We’re pleased to have successfully completed the first stage of works to repair the Adam Street Bridge, which will allow vital passenger services through the city to return to normal working.

“Further repairs to allow freight traffic to use the bridge are also progressing well and will be finished over the next few weeks.

“I’d like to thank all the teams involved from Amey Infrastructure Wales (AIW) and Centregreat for their hard work over the last year to achieve such a successful delivery of the project”.

Complex construction

Adam Street’s historical bridge was made up of a complex construction that was originally riveted together.

This added complications to the repair work, as modern bridges have standard formed sections that are bolted together.

With the original programme submitted in September 2020, work has continued throughout 2021, including extensive cross-girder strengthening as well as renewing and installing new cross girders, complete replacement of the bridge deck in steel, ancillary new steelwork, waterproofing and finishing works.

With noise disruption being a challenge due to the nature of the works, TfW and its partners put mitigations in place including working during the night to minimise disruption.

This was all completed and allowed the track to be reinstated ready for passenger services at the beginning of May.