Trams making progress

Foundations for platforms at four new Oldham Metrolink stops have been completed as the drive to bring trams into the town centre continues.

With the opening of the first section of the Oldham and Rochdale line now only months away — to Manchester’s Central Park next spring — engineers are forging ahead on work in Oldham and its surrounding districts.

Platform foundations are now finished at Freehold, South Chadderton, Hollinwood and Failsworth. Major bridge refurbishments in Chadderton and Freehold are continuing after contractors M-Pact Thales decided they needed extra strengthening. New tracks have been laid in Hollinwood.

Trams aren’t due in the town centre until 2014 but progress has been guaranteed by the acquisition of Network Rail land around Thorpe Road and Dean Lane in Newton Heath for Metrolink works.

In Rochdale, piling for the foundations of the Rochdale East Viaduct next to the Calder Valley lines, is under way.

The installation of the main bridge beams will be carried out on New Year’s Day.