Manchester Metrolink Substations

To cope with the electrical demands of increased traffic on both the Altrincham and Bury lines, a new substation was built on each line to provide additional power for the Trams.

Pod-Trak carried out a multi-discipline scope at each site by completing the design and installation of both the Civils and OLE at Brooklands on the Altrincham Line and Whitefield’s on the Bury Line. The new substations were located within existing car parks.

Careful planning and consideration had to be taken daily for the public who were using the station. The installation works were similar at each site and included piling, substation bases, DNO bases, OLE bases, buried duct routes, UTX’s, trough routes, fencing, paving, Armco barrier, bollard installation and landscaping on Civils.

OLE scope consisted of steel installation, section insulators, GMI installation, bypass isolators, HV feeds, impedance bonding and section proving. Compound works were all carried out on days
while trackside works were delivered over a series of weekend disruptive possessions and midweek engineering hours. OLE foundations were precast at the depot and installed on site with OTP to assist with time constraints.