We had an inkling that today might be opportune for a visit, so we visited the two sites this morning and are delighted to be able to bring you some really good news:

Bridge 1, Broadway

Here the anticipated completion of all of the steelwork at Bridge 1 was achieved at 8.00 p.m. last night and the site was tidied up this morning, with the men on their way home early by 10.00 a.m. Huge sighs of relief from everyone!! Whoo-hoo !!! The bridge re-opening is in sight.

Some of the last few repairs were in very awkward places, not designed for easy access. The photograph below shows the two welders trying to complete important web stiffeners in both the track bearers and the upside, Broadway end main girder bearing point:

 

Replacement of the moth eaten main girder end lying in front.

 In the next, internal shot one man is lying on his stomach holding a plate in place while, to the left, is the hand of a second man holding the welding tool, which is barely visible:

 

Can you see the ghostly hand of the welder coming in from the left?

All of the bolts and nuts have now been finally tightened (Our structural engineer found a last 3 loose last night :-) ...)

 

All the bolts are nice and tight now.

... and the “heads” of the heavy bridge props have now been taken off to allow those bits to be blasted, so the bridge is now self-supporting once again!

 

Prop heads off, and the site nice and neat and tidy.

The raucous sounds of diesel generators, disc cutters, grinders and welding plants have now given way to the gentle throb of Tramontana's Deutz V8 driven shotblasting and painting set up, and the hiss of copper slag being shot out at 80 p.s.i against anything else that needs to be removed! Roberto was not actually due in until next Tuesday, but came in at 8.00a.m. this morning, so we are hoping to get ahead again. He may well be working tomorrow, as the weather for Monday sounds poor.

We have asked them to blast clean the abutment walls as well (with a more delicate type of shot medium) to remove the years of water staining, lime scale and traffic dirt and weathering on this surface, which is very much in the public eye.

 Bridge 5, Little Buckland

The steelworkers popped down there, after bridge 1, to complete a couple of minor items and hopefully the steelwork there is also complete. Our structures engineer John will do a final inspection later next week, when the embankment is re-instated to its full height.

Top lift shuttering at the Broadway end is in place, and the first three layers back filled and rolled down.

The back filling behind the 3^rd concrete pour on the north abutment is completed and the shuttering virtually ready to the top lift on both sides of the bridge. It is planned to be ready for the final pour on Tuesday. 

Concrete wing wall support, Broadway end

Junction with the abutment.

 

As you can see, the new concrete backing to the Upside, Broadway end wing wall is emerging nicely and the bricklayers will soon be back to install a new 9” Engineering brick face to it.

Wing wall with top lift shuttering in place.

In the humble view of your blogger, the work carried out by our contractors looks excellent, and seems to be on schedule too. In addition, we are lucky to have such a dedicated structures engineer on the side of the railway. He has been on site almost every day, and hasn't missed a single untightened bolt! Hats off to John, we owe him a good pint. It is turning out to be a good partnership between railway and contractor.

But there are three more bridges to go. We shall be there for our readers.

By the way, have you thought of topping up your share holding? It's been 9 months since I sent my cheque, my bank account has recovered (a bit) and I thought I would send another cheque before the issue times out. £32.000 to go! It's such fun to get 30% back from the government, you don't get much from them these days...