THE newest railway bridge in Worcester has won a top award in the civil engineering industry.

At the annual awards ceremony of the Institution of Civil Engineers West Midlands, the Battenhall Railway bridge was named the winner of the Large Project Award.

The bridge was built to carry the railway line that links Worcester with Oxford and London over the city's Southern Link Road, which was being widened to help reduce congestion for over 30,000 vehicles that use the road every weekday.

To create the new crossing, the project team had to secure the existing railway bridge so that the adjoining section of embankment could be removed to make way for the new section of road.

With the embankment removed, the new bridge span, constructed on-site, was moved into position.

The judges were impressed with what was described as "an extremely challenging project, which demonstrated a unique engineering solution to the installation of a railway bridge over a new section of road".

The award ceremony was held on Wednesday, May 22, at the Macdonald Burlington Hotel in Birmingham.

The partners involved are Tony Gee and Partners, Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd, SLC Rail, Jacobs and Worcestershire County Council.

ICE West Midlands regional director Jo Barnett said: “This is an exciting time for civil engineering in the region and you don’t have to travel far to see the many and varied infrastructure projects taking shape.

"Congratulations to all the entrants of the 2019 awards, the standard of their entries was, as always, extremely high.”