The piers of this Victorian rail bridge were found to be unable to take the horizontal braking/traction forces of modern trains entering and departing Neath Station. The installation of CI LUDs between the deck and one abutment was found to be the most cost-effective solution. Expensive works to the cast iron piers and existing bearings were avoided. CI designed and supplied all fixings and also provided on site supervision of installation.

As well as being skewed to the bank the deck was curved in plan and was continuous across all four spans, a total of 80 metres. One abutment was next to a trunk road and had no strengthening possibility, this resulted in all works being carried out at the opposite abutment.

The articulation of the bridge prevented a fixed bearing being provided at this strengthened abutment, and therefore the designer specified LUDs to transfer longitudinal forces at this point. Due to the skewed relationship of the bridge and the deck the LUD s are connected to the brackets using ball joint connections rather than the conventional clevis arrangement.