Jacking the box: a 101 h squeeze under West Coast main line

One of the last level-crossings on the West Coast main line was finally removed following its replacement by an under-bridge installed as a jacked box during a 101 h track possession. The Owen Street level-crossing next to Tipton station was a notorious local bottleneck, with the barriers typically closed for 75% of the day. This paper describes the planning and construction of its replacement that opened in January 2010, which was undertaken in a highly constrained site between the railway and a canal, and in very difficult ground conditions. The box straddling a geological fault, and the post-industrial nature of the site meant that old mine workings, a canal basin and bridge abutments had to be dealt with along with major utilities.