An entire listed 16th century Kent farmhouse weighing 450 tonnes is moved away from the line of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
Constructing a continuous 74 km stretch of new railway through the historic south-east corner of England presented the Channel Tunnel Rail Link's designers with many problems. One imaginative solution involved moving an entire 450-tonne building to a new location. Bridge House, a listed 16th century farmhouse, was situated very close to a new cutting for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The building was constructed of a mixture of timber-framed, stone and cob walls and would have been difficult to dismantle and reconstruct in a new location. Therefore, the complete farmhouse was moved 55 m into a new location away from the line of the Rail Link. The building was underpinned with reinforced concrete beams and, beneath these beams, a 300 mm thick reinforced concrete slab was constructed as a jacking platform. Another concrete base was constructed along the route of the move to carry the greased slide trackway and permanent concrete foundations were installed at the final house location. The 450 tonne building was jacked up and grease skates installed under the ground beams. Over a two day period, the building was gently pulled along the greased trackway into its final location using three cables and hydraulic rams. The £ billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link (now High Speed One) was built between 1998-2007 and partly funded by the European Union, it forms a section of the Trans European Rail Network. It is basically a French-style high-speed rail line linking London with the Channel Tunnel, the Eurostar trains were developed on proven technology from the French TGV high-speed system. Stations on the CTRL are the existing Ashford International and new stations at Ebbsfleet and Stratford. The line ends at the rebuilt St. Pancras.
Size: 2423px × 2421px
Location: Mersham, Kent, UK
Photo credit: © qaphotos.com / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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