Gloucestershire engineering firm playing key role in supporting Ukraine
A Gloucestershire firm is playing a key role in the operation to rebuild Ukraine’s shattered transport infrastructure.
Maybe Bridge, which is based in the Forest of Dean, has been working with the Ukraine Government as it struggles to rebuild its railway network.
The British government has pledged £10m worth of materials and equipment help repair the country’s devastated rail lines.
Ukraine’s railways have been under almost constant attack by rockets and cruise missiles since Vladimir Putin launched the war a year ago.
The country’s network of tracks has remained a critical to the military effort, to maintaining its grain exports, and not least to the four million evacuees who have been forced to leave their homes.
The aid package, which includes rapid-build modular steel bridges and tunnel lining repair equipment, is a key part of efforts to keep the rail network moving.
The first aid shipment supplied by Network Rail, Mabey Bridge Limited and the Department for Transport, has already been delivered to Ukraine via Poland.
Transport Secretary and Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper recently visited the firm.
He said: “This is a really important project where Mabey Bridge and Network Rail are working together to support the Ukrainian railway system which has come under attack from Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine.
“What we’re doing here is supplying both equipment and supplies, but also we’re training Ukrainian railway personnel who are then going to go back to Ukraine and train their teams of engineers on how to use this equipment to get their railway back up and running when it gets attacked by Putin’s troops.
“I’ve been able to speak to some of those Ukrainian personnel and it’s really clear the importance of this and that this is going to make a difference in helping to get their railway working again.”
Last year the UK provided £2.3bn in military aid to Ukraine – the largest package of support of any European nation and second only to the United States.
