ESL recently successfully completed the installation of a new overhead line connection up one of the most iconic streets in Wolverhampton; Pipers Row.
The vision of the Midland Metro Alliance and the network owner Midland Metro Limited was to limit the impact on the surrounding public space incorporating existing streetlight poles and newly installed fixings to the bus station’s steel frame as OLE supports.
During the 6 week construction programme, ESL created the most complex junction area that Midland Metro have on its network whilst maintaining a tram service for the people of Wolverhampton. ESL installed 123 registration points and over 500m of new contact wire and 2000m+ of support wires, without accident or incident and within the required programme timescales.
ESL’s scope also included the design and build of a number of particularly difficult OLE foundations. Multiple constraints, both from the OLE layout, street signals, carriageways and buried services meant having engineers on site to develop the design even as the excavation and installation works were being undertaken. Power Upgrade works were also undertaken in the vicinity to facilitate the new fleet of trams that will be introduced to the streets of Birmingham and Wolverhampton in the very near future.