Holidays are coming up ! I will be away for a much deserved rest from this Sunday, returning to blog the bridge works again on Monday 15th September. We had a quick look round the sites yesterday afternoon, so here is a last update before the two week pause:

Bridge 1, Broadway:

Still no pictures here, as there isn't much to see. Roberto, the shotblaster from Tramblast, continued to work 'below decks' yesterday so all you could see was a cloud of dust, showing that he was busy.

The work is creeping ever closer to completion, with the very last bit of blast cleaning and primer painting now taking place. This will complete the cleaning and priming of the whole bridge, including all of the many repaired areas.

Today (Friday) is down as an undercoating day with the possibility of top coat also being started, at least. Then on Saturday the completion of all painting should finally be achieved.

The bricklayers are due back on Monday to build the ballast retaining walls at both ends of the bridge. The balustrades also still need to go up, as well as the 'wasp' striping and signage.

Bridge 4, Peasebrook Farm

The contractors have started breaking out the slab on top of the deck to expose where the old parapet steel is fixed. This is going to be cut out and new installed; another long row of smaller rivets is to be removed at both edges. The old waterproofing is in a poor state and will have to come off. In stripping some of it back we exposed the concrete slab beneath, some of which is also in a poor state and will need some remedial work. 

 

Cheltenham end pilaster and handrail base exposed

The new base for the pilaster is also evident from the picture above.

For those interested in history, this bridge was built by E Finch & Co, a shipyard and bridge builder based on the river Wye in Chepstow. Edward Finch was a personal friend of Brunel and his company built numerous iron and steel structures along our railway. E Finch for example built the Broadway footbridge, and their marks appear on at least one of the original running in board posts that we have. We would love to have one of the original works plates to put back on the bridge, or the opportunity to borrow one to make a casting of it. If you can help, get in touch!

If you want to know more about E Finch & Co, there is a lot of interesting history in this link:
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Finch_and_Co


Bridge 5, Little Buckland



All of the shuttering has been removed and the re-creation of the embankment at either end of the bridge is nearing completion. Regular consolidation of the layers of fill are taking place with the remote controlled vibrating roller/compactor.

Back filling of the Cheltenham end abutment

Back filling the Broadway end abutment

 In the picture above, you can see that a large load of ballast has just arrived, and the roller, top right, is setting out to give it a good rolling.

Remote controlled roller at work

The bricklayers are due in on Monday to start rebuilding the 225 thick skin to the concrete wing wall backing, now finished.

The bridge blog will now retire for a rest, and return on Monday 15th September. If all goes well, we should be able to report on the re-opening of Bridge 1 at Broadway ! But will the share issue raise the last £32.000?

A brief update for today. Our structures engineer John had a look at both bridges and while there wasn't much to see at Broadway there was certainly plenty of activity, as your scribe heard shot blasting going non stop all day.

Here is a quick overview of both bridges:

Bridge 5, Little Buckland

Wing wall concrete & land drain finished

Land drain being covered - Broadway end

Completed concrete & land drain on the down side, Broadway end.

When John arrived at about 14.20 the shuttering had been stripped from the north end and construction of the back of abutment land drain was just being completed. Then back filling with stone up to the new concrete was about to start.

You can now see the full extent of the concrete backing to this abutment and wing walls – pretty smart, we think. The bricklayers are due back on Monday, but may be going to bridge 1 first to do the ballast retaining walls, below the deck plating.

Bridge 1, Broadway



The shot blasting at the weekend had exposed another 4 small areas requiring plates welding in. Fortunately the welder was on site fitting some brackets to carry the wasp chevron warning signs, so he was able to deal with them, but this delayed the painting work.
In the meantime, shot blasting continued, making use of the better weather.

As the shot blasting was mostly out of sight we weren't able to take any interesting pictures, so here are a couple of the balustrades in their original condition. These are being replicated off site, and should be fitted very shortly.

The balustrade, as was.

Detail of the bottom of the old balustrade

You can see why new balustrades are required - the bottoms are quite rusted away.

We think there will be an update on Friday or Saturday, after which the bridges blog will pause for 14 days while the scribe takes his well deserved holiday ! Back on September 15th.