A BOLTON factory is playing a key role in the Channel Tunnel rail link taking shape in London.

Watson Steel Structures, which is part of the Yorkshire-based Severfield-Rowen group of companies, has provided the steelwork for two new railway bridges.

Watson has supplied and installed steelwork for 50-metre bridges at St Pancras, which span the Midland main lines. The larger bridge weighs 800 tonnes and the smaller one is 300 tonnes.

Sections of the bridges were manufactured at the Watson factory, in Lostock, before being transported to North London.

They were installed during a 55-hour period when the railway tracks out of Kings Cross and St Pancras stations were closed over Christmas.

The Lostock factory will start work in August on phase two of the project -- a lattice girder bridge, which is due to be installed at St Pancras next Christmas.

Severfield-Rowen has invested more than £3 million in equipment and buildings since it acquired the famous firm -- formerly Watson Steel -- which has been involved in high-profile building projects around the world since 1933.

Another local company, Pennine Telecom of Bury, is also involved in the £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel rail link project.

It has provided radio communications equipment for Costain Ltd as staff work on a £141 million contract to turn St Pancras Station into the terminus for the tunnel link.

Richard Evans, Pennine's director of radio sales and marketing, said: "We initially supplied 70 to 80 hand portable radios in a fairly simple mode.

"But as the work progressed it became evident that a more sophisticated system was needed.

"Now they have a four-channel MPT 1327 trunk system with more than 200 users on the network which spreads over the huge construction site."