Update as at Thursday, 15.00 hours:

Bridge 1, Broadway


  The steelworkers are continuing their formidable task and the principal activities at the moment are:-

(a) fitting bolts to the two large plates on the Downside, outer main girder:

(b) the extremely tough job of removing the rivets from the damaged plates on the  upside (Evesham) outer girder. 
(c) cutting out corroded parts and installing new steel pieces, brought from the factory, to the outer joggled stiffeners on the downside outer main girder.

      The painter has now left site but has completed the first of two topcoats to the majority of the deck steel:

A beautiful paint job - and it ain't finished yet!

      A final coat to achieve the necessary thickness will be applied when all of the steel repairs have been completed. It all looks very new and shiny and the final coat is yet to come!!

3    The bricklayers also managed to get a “access slot” in the hectic programme and have installed the base courses of the ballast retention walls at both ends of the Broadway deck. 

      They have also managed to construct a new foundation and the lower plinth section of the pilaster base on the upside, Cheltenham end. These brick items will be finished off once all of the steel repairs and final paint treatment has been completed.

New pilaster base. the old one had been knocked off, and was nowhere to be found.

     Bridge 5, Little Buckland

     Excavation of the north embankment, continues, slowly reducing the ground level behind the abutment:

Two diggers and two dumpers at work.

       The removal of the old badly fractured and displaced upside, Broadway end wing wall, has just been completed, leaving a substantial, extremely tough section at foundation level, adjoining the abutment, the removal of which would undermine the end of the abutment. 

      A heavy machine mounted breaker was used to fetch much of the wall out, but it was pointless to remove such a tough chunk from a very delicate position.

The level is being checked for depth. Can you see me, Mum?

      Carpenters have just started work on top of the first section of concrete placed behind the south abutment. They have been fitting a small timber to the top of the slab and have inserted dowel bars into the concrete to connect the next section of concrete to the first. The trough created will be filled with concrete  to form a concrete “kicker” against which the shuttering for the second lift can be assembled. 

Ready to swallow another vast load of concrete.

      The yellow mushrooms that have appeared since our structures engineer was last on site are of course a safety protection item so that the men do not get impaled on the dowel bars!!

The painter has just moved back here again and will be applying undercoat and first top coat to as much of the steel as can be done.

      Bridge 3, Pry Lane

      This is a new bridge to our readers. It is a small brick arch bridge in the lane that leads up to the sewage works. It is the least costly of the 5, as it is basically in pretty good condition.

      The bricklayers have moved onto that site today to make a start on the small bits of brick repairs that are needed there. With the launch of work here, only one bridge has not yet been started - bridge 2, on the Childswickham Road. It will be addressed once bridge 1 is completed and released for traffic again, so that this, alternative, bridge can be closed.

      Thanks to the very good , dry weather conditions, very satisfactory progress is being made all round.