We now have some detailed photographs of the damage to the steelwork.

Tears in the platework, and holes

Various gaps in the deck, including the tears in the photograph above, allowed water to penetrate down to the steel:

Close up of heavy corrosion

More heavy corrosion. This bridge is 109 years old.

It was a hot and dirty day today.

The shot blasting company was on site all day long The start of shot blasting was delayed because the horse of a neighbour giving a riding lesson was being scared by the noise and dust.

Horses are so jittery. Your scribe once managed to make one rear up, simply by bicycling down the other side of a B road! On the other hand, I have seen horses from the GWSR steam train, in a field quite close to the railway and continuing to graze unperturbed. It's a a question of familiarity.

The contractor managed to blast clean all of the areas needing steelwork repairs.

At the same time the brick layers were removing the damaged ballast walls from both ends of the undersides of the deck plates.

The photographs above show some of the corroded steel rail bearers before the blast cleaning had been done, and a shot of holes and tears in the deck plates. These have allowed the water through that has caused the corrosion of the girders below.

The pictures below show the damaged areas after shot blasting today.

The steel repairs are due to start next Wednesday.

Broadway bridge works - bridge 1 - are also about to start. The official road closure and diversion signs are up, with a start of Monday June 16th.