SPL Powerlines UK (SPL) has just completed a major milestone on the East Kilbride Enhancement project as it prepares to enter into service the latest electrified route in Scotland. Regional Managing Director, Lee Pounder took some time out to chat with Rail Engineer about the significant achievements following the completion of the recent 16-week blockade of the branch line.
Quiter, cleaner services
The East Kilbride Enhancement project is a £143 million investment at the centre of the Scottish Government’s Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan, the strategic roadmap to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from Scotland’s domestic passenger rail services by 2045.
A significant aim of the project is to electrify the railway line between East Kilbride and Glasgow Central, enabling the introduction of quieter, cleaner electric trains along the corridor.
At just over 7.5 miles, the branch line plays an important role in enabling passengers in the South Lanarkshire region to reach Glasgow. Diesel units have served the route for decades but from December 2025, electric traction will replace them.
Stage 4 of the project involved a 16-week blockade running from 25 Jan to 18 May 2025, during which an ambitious programme of major works was completed. The work included double-tracking 1.4km of railway between East Kilbride and Hairmyres; the installation of over 22km of overhead electric power lines; the erection of new footbridges at Busby, Clarkston, and Giffnock stations; the renewal of the railway bridge over East Kilbride Road in Busby; and lowering the track under four key bridges. Industry-leading contractor SPL Powerlines led the project, which involved 23 wire runs, 6.8 miles of earth wire, 364 OLE foundations, 98 booms, 22 switches, and 16 surge arrestors.
Originally scheduled to take place in 2020, like a great many plans around that time the programme was interrupted by the Covid pandemic, and during this period, the original plan was reworked.
“The brand new Hairmyres Station is now significant for intermodal use, and it is also particularly vital for patients, staff, and visitors to Hairmyres Hospital, as well as offering travel opportunities for commuters and leisure passengers,” says Lee.
“There have been upgrades along the line of the route at Giffnock and Clarkston, along with a number of new bridges and structures installed to accommodate electrification. There have been two access for all schemes along the line of route, 50 new signals installed, and three track lowers removing the requirement to dismantle bridges which is a significantly more efficient way to do electrification.”
Seamless co-ordination
Years in the planning, the programme of works was executed flawlessly with all contractors working together in parallel, minimising disruption to passengers. As a testament to this high level of integration, SPL Powerlines was able to hand back four additional planned weeks of disruptive access.
“We managed to coordinate track, civils, signalling, and electrification, involving six main contractors and multiple sub-contractors, into a defined timeline. Achieving all this hinges on a long, laborious process of closely examining all the contractor activities – the mileages they’ll be working on, the access points they need to use to on-track people and plant, and deconflict the works safely. By planning the works this way it saves significant time and costs seen on programmes that previously relied on planning works sequentially,” Lee says.
“It’s important to acknowledge that we’ve had the benefit of working with some very good project managers, engineers, construction managers, and programme planners on this project, who have been able to review and interpret all of the project requirements enabling the integration of all of the works.”
Additionally, the successful execution of the programme could not have been achieved without SPL Powerline’s excellent relationships across the industry.
“We benefit from operating in a region with mature relationships,” says Lee. “We operate under what we call the hub and spoke model, where Network Rail is the ‘hub’ and all of the ‘spoke’ contractors sit on the outside of the wheel. All the contractual relationships go back to Network Rail, and we have informal relationships with all the contractors around the outside of the wheel. Those relationships are at the level where we can have very meaningful conversations. We have a genuinely joined-up way of thinking for the greater good of Scotland’s Railway and its passengers.”
Cutting edge techniques
SPL Powerlines’s success has also been aided by innovative ways of working and the employment of some quite revolutionary technology.
For instance, the majority of OLE masts were prefabricated at its compound, Robslee Drive, and delivered to the site already assembled. This way of working, says Lee, brought many benefits.
“Staff are working safely in a much more controlled environment, with the added benefit of reducing the need for people to be going on the track at night. On the back of that, we get a much better product. When we have people working in a yard similar to a factory, the production line methodology improves quality significantly reducing the need for reworks out on site. Ultimately, that means we become more efficient.
“Given the current cost challenges, these maximal gains are really driving the single track kilometre (STK) rate here in Scotland, so much so that the efficiencies that we’re achieving are now commonly talked about in the industry.”
When it came to wiring, SPL Powerlines used its Zeck wiring unit which enables the contact and catenary wires to be installed at full tension on site. The Zeck wiring unit boasts an automatic wire tensioning system and a control panel with a touch screen display, making it easy to operate and ensuring precise wire installation. Additionally, the unit is designed to minimise environmental impact and reduce noise levels and carbon emissions.
“I believe it’s one of only two units currently in the UK. It’s been successfully used in England over several years, however this is only the second time it’s been used in Scotland,” says Lee. “It’s been a significant and worthwhile investment for SPL Powerlines which enhances our technical expertise.”
Safety and wellbeing
With work on the East Kilbride project underway 24/7 over 16 weeks, the safety and wellbeing of the workforce was at the forefront of SPL’s mind, and the firm employed new technology and innovative strategies to keep workers safe, healthy and happy.
“One of the major innovations was the use of Tended’s geofencing and geotagging system,” says Lee. “We had a geofence around our whole work site, and had all the significant assets tagged including point, marker boards, as well as our compound limits. All our safety-critical staff were geo-tagged as were our plant and engineering trains, so we knew exactly where they were at any given time.
“If you speak to any of our engineering supervisors, they’ll confess it has totally changed the game. They no longer had to go outside to find out what was happening or make endless calls – instead they had a large monitor in front them showing the whole worksite, and the location of engineering trains, plant and workgroups in real time.
“The technology massively reduced the risk of anybody being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyone walking into an area that was out of bounds was immediately alerted by their alarm. It was a game changer and I’m not sure the technology has ever been deployed on a similar scale – it was an incredibly successful deployment of digital innovation” says Lee.
“With regard to health and wellbeing, 16 weeks is a significant amount of time and, as we were working around the clock, we ensured that regular breaks were scheduled,” Lee adds. “We also used that time as an opportunity to monitor staff fatigue. All the contractors went above and beyond in this respect. We ran a health and safety campaign throughout the blockade which saw multiple organisations come along and offer various health checks, both physical and mental. Again, credit is due to all the contractors who were involved in that – it was all very well received by the entire workforce.”
Ongoing work
Undoubtably, the latest phase of the East Kilbride project has been a major triumph, but SPL Powerlines is certainly not sitting on its laurels. This is just one key milestone and several more remain, including the reopening of the upgraded East Kilbride station this summer, and the introduction of electric trains at the end of the year.
“While we have broken the back of the construction work, the actual testing, integration works, and final checks and balances you see in any major electrification work all still need to take place,” says Lee. “We need to ensure that when we fully energise the line of route, it’s done in a safe and controlled manner. The end of this blockade means that we are bang on programme, but there’s still a lot of work to do and we can’t afford to be complacent.”
Given SPL Powerline’s success during this latest blockade, this is unlikely to be the case.