Network Rail has released a video (below) explaining the work it is carrying out on the 180-year-old Ouse Valley Viaduct in West Sussex.

The viaduct is Grade II listed, and is situated on the Brighton main line between Balcombe and Haywards Heath.

Network Rail is working to restore and repair some of its stone and brickwork, to enhance the overall life of the structure – aiming to maintain it for another 180 years – and to keep train services safe and reliable.

The work will also ensure that people can visit the viaduct in safety.

Ouse Valley Viaduct carries trains between Brighton and London, with nearly seventeen million passengers crossing the viaduct every year.

Twenty passengers trains and a few freight trains cross the structure each standard hour, totalling 52,000 journeys on a typical weekday.

Network Rail describes the viaduct as “arguably one of the country’s most elegant pieces of railway infrastructure”.

Its construction began in 1839 and, eleven million bricks later, completed in 1842. By then it had already carried its first train, on 12 July 1841.

The viaduct is twenty-nine metres tall, and has thirty-seven arches along its 450 metres. It carries trains across the Ouse Valley and over the River Ouse.

Because of the viaduct’s listed status, Network Rail is using a conservation expert and working closely with English Heritage and West Sussex County Council’s conservation team.

This will ensure that it carries out the work in a sympathetic manner and in keeping with the structure.

The first phase of work will see Network Rail engineers work alongside specialist stone masons to repair and restore the stone and brickwork to the first eight arches.

This will involve using about 2,600 bespoke bricks and forty tonnes of stone.

A business in Haywards Heath is supplying the bricks, and the stone is Richmont Crème, a limestone originating from a quarry 8km north of Poitier in western France.

Further work will include stonework repairs to parapets and cornices, re-casing, fracture repairs, repointing and pinning of masonry, lead redressing and replacement, and repairing integral drainage downpipes.

“It’s really pleasing to see the ongoing progress by our teams to restore and repair Ouse Valley Viaduct to enhance the overall life of this structure.

“Ouse Valley Viaduct is a stunning piece of infrastructure and critical part of our railway in Sussex with 20 passenger trains and a number of freight services crossing every hour. Almost 17 million passenger journeys are made across the viaduct every year, equating to 52,000 journeys on a typical weekday.

“This work is part of a wider long-term programme to keep passenger and freight services moving over the viaduct safely and reliably for another 180 years, as well as ensure it is safe to welcome the considerable number of visitors each year.”

Lucy McAuliffe, Network Rail Sussex route director