From its humble beginnings in 1863 as a small-town station for a single line running along the Fylde coast from Lytham, Blackpool Central Station boomed into a bustling station to rival crowded terminals worldwide.
In the early 1900s the station was enlarged to include 14 platforms to accommodate the large amount of traffic, and by 1911 Blackpool Central Station was officially the busiest in the world. In July 1936, there were 650 recorded train movements in 24 hours (approx. every 2 minutes).
The station remained in service until 1964 when, against the original recommendation of the 1963 Beeching Plan, the station was closed to allow Blackpool Council to buy the land for potential redevelopment.
The closure left a large tract of wasteland along with disused embankments and bridges.
In the late 1980s the derelict track bed of the central railway line was adapted into a road, Yeadon Way, connecting the town centre with the M55 motorway. This road terminates at Blackpool Central Car Park – constructed at about the same time as Yeadon Way at the site of the former platform ends, approach tracks, and sidings.
Throughout its life Yeadon Way has suffered distress in the form of total and differential settlement due to the construction techniques employed in the original railway embankment construction together with the additional load placed on the crest to create the new road.
Blackpool Council has implemented a phased asset management plan to maintain the highway, with the most distressed sections being stabilised using Controlled Modulus Columns, and other sections being enhanced by reconstructing the top section of the embankment using reinforced earth techniques, together with removing load from the shoulders of the embankment.
PaSCoE have been commissioned by the contractor to undertake the geotechnical and pavement design of the remedial works including stability assessments of the existing embankments, earthworks materials assessments, earthworks specifications, reinforced earth design, existing road pavement structural assessment, new road pavement design, and street lighting civils design.