The UK’s Network Rail has begun work on a £33m ($41.4m) reinforcement project to protect railway tracks on the East Coast Main Line that sit on an active landslip.

More than 1km of land will be reinforced during the project at Browney Curve in Durham, England, with the major concrete piling work hoped to be a permanent solution to secure the land when completed at the end of 2024.

Network Rail's lead portfolio manager Tom Grainger said: “The reinforcement work at Browney Curve is essential in continuing to deliver reliable journeys for our passengers on a more resilient railway.”

“This is a really big and complex piece of work, but we’re excited to deliver improvements to the railway for our customers.”

In addition to the concrete reinforcements, work on the project will also include the widening of the embankment, improvements to drainage and tree planting to reduce the impact of heavy rainfall.

Currently, the land is monitored by Network Rail to ensure it is safe to run trains along and to detect any ground movement that could be an issue. The organisation said that this will continue during and after the work has been completed.

The works have been planned by the network manager to occur around rail services, meaning that passenger journeys will be unaffected throughout the project.

News of the project's beginning comes only at the same time as Network Rail carries out the final stages of work on another multi-million-pound infrastructure protection project with the installation of the new bridge spans on the Barmouth viaduct in Northwest Wales.