Breaking news.... work has started on Bridge 4 ! This is the small bridge at Peasbrook farm.

Wing walls at Peasbrook Farm

 

The first job is to repair the wing walls, which are cracked and infested with grass and tree roots. The coping bricks have been taken off and further bricks removed until sound brickwork is exposed. The balustrades have also been removed, as severely attacked by rust.

There is a plan behind the order of the works. The contractor has teams specialising in different activities: excavation, brick laying, steel fabrication, shot blasting etc. Each team can work on one site at a time. The shot blaster is currently at Bridge 1, the excavator at bridge 5, and the brick layers at bridge 4. It is therefore difficult to change the order, as all the teams fit into the master plan.

Bridge 5, Little Buckland

The digger and 9T dumper have been on site to excavate behind the Cheltenham end of the abutments. They are presently trying to create a lower level plateau on which the excavator can stand, to reach the deepest level of the final excavation. The pictures below show the level of the plateau. Readers may recall that this bridge has inward leaning abutments, and this will be addressed from behind with some solid concrete. It's the worst bridge of the 5.

Little Buckland, south side.

The steel fabricators are currently also manufacturing the remaining pieces of steel that will be inserted into the formerly rust damaged areas. They will then move on to Broadway.

 Bridge 1, Broadway

 Here the principal activity over the last few days has been shot blasting. It's a big bridge! At this point in time the intention is to reveal all the damaged areas, so that new pieces can be welded in, as at Bridge 5. There are quite a lot of them at Broadway, as rust was not the only enemy, but also careless road users.

Shot blasting in progress

The shot blasting has been taking place for 3 days or so already, and there are several days more still to go. But there is steady progress, and the work required, laid bare by this process, is quite clear.

Northern end after shot blasting. Note the big hole on the left, against the pilaster.

Northern, Evesham side of the bridge, after shot blasting

Readers will have noticed in an earlier post the shot blaster's lorry with the V8 diesel engine powering the business end. This makes for a completely independent and mobile capability. The company has experience of railway bridges, but also in a whole range of other objects such as houses and trucks - their website is at at www.tramblast.com. Over tea we were charmed by the proprietor Roberto Tramontana, an Italian born in Bromsgrove! The accent was strongly West Midlands... His father was taken prisoner at Tobruk and transported back to the UK, and is still going strong at the tender age of 96. If you need your steam engine shot blasting, do check him out.