Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd

South Yorkshire Supertram - Trackworks

Client: South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive
Date of award: 1991
Date of completion: 1995
Contract value: £120.0 million
Route length (STK): 64km
System voltage: 750DC

Balfour Beatty Rail Projects was awarded the design and construct contract for the total infrastructure for this project, including civil works, trackwork, power supply and distribution, workshops, signalling and telecommunications. Balfour Beatty is one of the world's few contractors with a total in-house capability to carry out such a project.

Predominantly a double track system, the 30km Supertram network consists of 14km of route in street-running track, 13km of route adjacent to roads and the remaining 3km runs on disused British Rail track. In the hilly areas of Sheffield, gradients of up to 10% had to be catered for in the designs.

The street-running track consists of TG35 rail embedded in the road construction with a resilient polymer material to absorb noise and vibration and to provide electrical insulation.

The ballast track consists of BS80A rail on twin-block reinforced concrete sleepers, which provide increased lateral stability for a light track construction.

Phase 1 of the system was opened early 1994 with final project completion in 1995.

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