Surfacing along a tram corridor is a different job from surfacing an ordinary carriageway. The running surface has to meet the rail head cleanly, the street stays in use on foot throughout, and the working window is set by the tram timetable rather than by the paving. We’ve also worked on the Newhaven tram extension.
Working alongside live rail
Levels are the whole discipline. Asphalt laid against a rail groove has to finish flush, so the profile is set out from the rail rather than from the kerb, and hand work takes over from the paver at every interface. Compaction close to the rail is done in narrow passes to protect the track form beneath.
Access and sequencing
A tram corridor runs through places that cannot close: shop fronts, stops, crossings and side roads. The work is broken into short lengths so each one is reopened before the next is started, with pedestrian routes and crossing points reinstated as the work moves along rather than all at the end.
- Setting out taken from the rail head, not the kerb line
- Hand-laid work at rail interfaces and around ironwork
- Short working lengths, each reopened before the next begins
- Pedestrian routes and crossings maintained throughout
- Road markings and tactile paving reinstated to match
Reinstatement and finish
A finished corridor is judged on its joints: the rail interface, the ironwork, the seam between new and existing surfacing, and the line of the markings. Each one is set out so the street reads as a single continuous surface rather than a series of patches.