TMS were called by Balfour Beatty on Good Friday following the closure of a critical railway link between Oxford and Didcot. The Nuneham Viaduct carries the twin rail line over the River Thames and had been under constant monitoring due to settlement of the south riverbank bridge support. After a sudden increase in the deterioration of the abutment forced the line closure, TMS were called to assist with in-river temporary bridge support to enable reconstruction of the bridge support. After a rapid mobilisation, TMS were on site the following Wednesday equipped with pontoons, tugs and piling equipment to install two significant pile supported bridge trusses which allowed the whole bridge deck to be lifted off the failed bridge support. Working in the River Thames has been made possible using TMS’s fleet of modular pontoons which could be deployed between the river locks and moved to the remote site location using our shallow draft but high power tugboats.
