Today, Monday, was the day for a big concrete pour at

Bridge 5, Little Buckland

After the first pour, at the bottom of the pit.

The actual arrival of 36m2 of concrete was somewhat delayed as the stuff is getting difficult to source, with the current boom in the construction industry. By the end of the day, the flow was finally satisfactory, and the intended pour for the day was indeed achieved.
The picture above shows the rear of the northern abutment, which, like the southern abutment, is getting a large concrete wall poured behind it, linked to the old GWR abutment by steel dowels.

In the picture above, you can see a number of theses dowels sticking out, with little protective capsules on the ends. An initial pour has taken place, and a few rocks have been thrown in, which will absorb some of the heat generated by the concrete going off. An old trick of the trade, which your scribe has also seen done inside the huge dams at Rhayader in the centre of Wales. The crack between the wing wall and the abutment is also evident. Both wing wall and abutment will be stabilised by the large hunk of concrete that will end up behind these walls.

 The picture above shows the other wing wall, which was taken right down to the foundations. It was intended to pour the concrete up to the level of the shuttering today. The complete concrete will be poured in four sections, layer by layer.

This picture shows an overview of the northern abutment site, looking towards Buckland and the Cotswolds behind. We were amused to find, completely isolated, a mug of tea stranded on the top of the centre pillar:

Spot the mug in the middle - it's coloured green!

They won't get this mug back until the concrete has reached this level. And the site engineer was wondering where all his mugs were disappearing to....

As we walked over to the other, southern abutment, a load of concrete arrived, oh joy!

This concrete is then poured, bit by bit, into a pump lorry, which was already on site:

At the 'business' end of the pipe delivering the fluid concrete is a chap directing the flow into the space behind the shuttering, and the location of the pipe is driven by the chap with the remote control box by his belt on the right below:

Looking north towards Broadway

The chap on the left is vibrating the air out of the concrete as it settles. The slow delivery of supplies had an unintended advantage in that the slope on the abutment was much easier to construct as the concrete already there from an earlier delivery was beginning to go off:

 In the picture above you can see how the slope, quite steep, follows the line of the top of the abutment.

Bridge 1, Broadway
With Tramblast temporarily off on another mission (they will return shortly to follow behind the fabricators' repairs) Broadway bridge has been receiving further attention from Brunswicks. Two people were on site, working below the deck and cutting out further damaged pieces. The next major job is to refit the new lower flange on the Evesham side (the one that was so difficult to remove)

A collection of joggle plates ready for use

Back at Caernarvon, the fabricators were making up further new pieces, including the new ballustrades with the distinctive 'knitted' design. They will look very authentic! No major issues to report, and progress is looking good. Let's hope the weather holds.