Inland Rail work done at Barnawartha North, Wangaratta and Glenrowan

A 24-metre chunk of the boarding area south of the station had to be cut away to allow the trench to be formed into which 30 concrete segments were laid.

A 750-tonne crane was needed to manoeuvre the pieces into place.

They have been subsequently covered and a new concrete-bounded section of platform created to reconnect temporarily separated sections.

At the same time a section of railway track was lifted and then returned by a 250-tonne crane.

Works will occur at a later date to form entrances to the tunnel which will replace the former Cusack Street footbridge.

The underpass was the most time-consuming work undertaken across last weekend and earlier this week as part of changes needed to accommodate double-stacked goods trains using the Inland Rail corridor that is designed to link Melbourne and Brisbane.

Other works along the North East Victorian section involved placing decking on a new bridge near Glenrowan station and lowering the track below the Murray Valley Highway at Barnawartha North.

A 750-tonne crane was also used to hoist 16 precast concrete beams on to pylons and form the bridge within sight of where the Kelly Gang siege occurred in 1880.

The project close to Wodonga Council's Logic centre involved the removal of the equivalent of five Olympic swimming pools of soil to lower the track by up to 2.5 metres.

Then 2000 tonnes of stone ballast was put in place and 800 concrete sleepers and 800 metres of rail laid.

To allow the changes to proceed the Australian Australian Rail Track Corporation and contractor McConnell Dowell were given possession of the track for 60 hours from Saturday September 23 to the following Monday.

That meant no freight trains and passenger services being replaced with buses and no trains stopping at Wangaratta for much of this week.

The track corporation's Victorian and South Australian general manager projects Ed Walker was pleased with how the around-the-clock effort unfolded.

"It was a successful possession with all our planned construction works completed," Mr Walker said.

"Importantly, the ARTC Inland Rail team and our contractors McConnell Dowell delivered the work safely.

"We work hard to keep the disruption around the sites to a minimum and we thank the local communities for their patience and understanding as we carry out the construction tasks."

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