Yesterday lunch time we had a quick wander round the works, which are still progressing well. This is what we found at

Bridge 1, Broadway

A new Evesham side flange plate.

The last of the large new plates for the bottom flange of the upside outer girder were brought to site this morning. The photo shows the first of these alongside the main beam to which it is to be bolted. Another longer one is waiting to be dragged on top before the two can be bolted to the visible flange angles. The burning gear is on hand to cut out 3 small sections of the outer angle which have corroded away to almost nothing from the original ½” thickness!! New ones will be welded in and a cover plate fitted to act as a splice plate.

Broadway bridge continues to be in the hands of the fabricators, who are concentrating on the underside, for which scaffolding needs to be in place. 

Bridge 5, Little Buckland

The main activity yesterday was the pouring of the second lift of concrete behind the Broadway end abutment. This involved pumping in about  4 loads of concrete, which unfortunately happened before and after we were on site - we can't be there 24hrs a day! Below are a couple of shots of the overall pour, and another with one of the men measuring up for the last load.

In the background you can see some the Severn Trent workers that have come to fix a leak – it turned out to be a leaking collar joint, over 1M deep and some way from where the contractor's machines had been travelling! Not our fault then.

One thing that has always puzzled us with this bridge is, what happened when the original steel makers in 1904 came to fit their new steelwork on top of the new abutments, which as many locals know lean towards each other by app 180mm on each side. We are almost 100% sure that the lean was created by the original contractors  filling behind the abutment walls before the brickwork had hardened. This effectively shortens the span by 360 mm. Did they tell the steel makers to shorten their steelwork? It seems not, as can be seen from the photo below, which shows the padstone hanging over the back of the brickwork by about 100mm instead of having about 100 mm of brickwork beyond the padstone!! A strange arrangement. The steelwork itself is perched right on the edge of the padstone, instead of having some stone outside it. No wonder, if the wall has moved forwards before they came to fit the steel.We are attempting to improve the bearing arrangements by extending the steelwork by 150mm (using the bracket with the hanging bolts) and sit it on the concrete thickening which is in the process of being installed in the void behind. This will give us a much stronger bridge.
This seems to be the second time that the original contractors didn't let the brickwork harden properly, before moving on to the next stage. The other occasion we know about was at Stanway viaduct, which suffered a partial collapse as it was being built. There, they took away the shuttering under the arches too soon, while a heavy crane was also parked on top. Three arches collapsed as a result!

Main steel beam on edge of padstone, with new extension fitted to bolt into the concrete. The padstone overhangs the brickwork.

 Finally, a picture showing how the void behind the concrete pour is now being filled again:

Abutment void partly back filled.