The Australian Rail Track Corporation will conduct 110 hours of major maintenance and renewal work this week in the Hunter Valley.
$20 million of scheduled maintenance work will lead to a series of closures across the Hunter Valley network between Monday, November 21 and Friday, November 25.
Included in the more than 100 planned projects are full track formation reconstructions, the replacement of rail turnouts, new rail being laid, level crossing improvements, ballast cleaning, rail corridor tidy up works and signalling maintenance.
ARTC’s executive general manager Hunter Valley Jonathan Vandervoort said the Corporation’s maintenance and construction work pumps over $100 million into the local economy every year.
“Hundreds of passenger trains run on our network every week or around half of all trains in the Hunter Valley – and the maintenance work we do is critical to keeping these trains running safely and reliably – at no cost to the taxpayer,” he said.
“By closing sections of track for an extended period we can deliver more work, faster and importantly in a safer environment for track workers.
“We’d like to thank the community for their patience with us while this important work is delivered and we also ask motorists to take extra care and be cautious of trucks entering and exiting work sites.”
The next scheduled major shutdown will take place in late February next year.