Work has resumed after the weekend, so here is our report and update, mostly as per Tuesday pm. The weather remains exceptionally good, so much progress is being made. We start off with:

Bridge 1, Broadway

The southern side trackbed was smoothed over by the mini digger and brought up to the bridge deck level today, ready for the bringing in of fresh ballast.
At the northern end (above), Cotswold stone gravel was emptied into the void behind the abutment, in order to allow water that flows off the deck to drain away down the sides.

Just a few yards away, at:

Bridge 2, Childswickham Road

Bridge 2 all wrapped up for shot blasting

The scaffolding and total encapsulation of this bridge is now complete. Shotblasting started on Monday and is about 25% complete (Tuesday pm), with most of the initial rough taken off. The shot blaster Tramblast was also busy on Wednesday, as could be seen from the Broadway site today. The initial shot blasting has revealed quite a lot of damage and rust:

Outer girder bottom flange damage

Outer girder impact damage.

The above two pictures at bridge 2 show evidence of violent meetings with road vehicles carrying over height loads. They did not leave their names and addresses !

 This picture of the centre girder shows typical plate end corrosion...

...while these outer plate ends have also had the visit of the tin worm, but have not yet been shot blasted to reveal the full extent of the damage. We then move on to:

Bridge 4, Peasebrook Farm
The main issue here is the really poor quality of the troughing.

Bridge 4 troughing ends

1    This picture shows the end of the steel troughing, and the poor quality of concrete filling the troughs. As you can see it contains bits of brick and rubble so has virtually no useful strength. A completely new scheme is having to be designed to take account of all of the corrosion problems and poor concrete that have been revealed.

We finish with a shot of the downside parapet railings, now all bolted up. Finally, we move on to:

Bridge 5, Little Buckland.
This is now open to road traffic again. Above the road, final preparations are being made to complete all the works.

In this picture, we can see how the waterproofing is secured to the hidden ballast retaining wall concrete. Neat, that should stop the rain from sneaking underneath and starting off the rust.

 How the wing wall used to meet the abutment at Little Buckland.

Upside wing wall and pilaster.

Now look at the wing wall - isn't that better? What a neat job.

A couple more updates can be posted for work done on Friday. In the order of the bridges, here is what we found:

Bridge 1, Broadway

After the deck was waterproofed with a resin coating on Thursday, the bridge received a protective textile, which will form a barrier between the resin and the track ballast that will be laid on top. Looks very cosy, doesn't it? Picture with thanks to Ron Taylor of the Broadway gang. Your blogger had a naughty weekend... he was away at the K&ESR! Now there's another railway building an extension and a station....

Bridge 2, Childswickham Road
During our visit on Friday it was pouring with rain, but we did see that the scaffolders were in action here. A picture proved impractical, so patience please.

Bridge 4, Peasebrook Farm

The steelworkers were back on Friday and fitted the new handrails on each side of the bridge. Nothing has been done with the decking this time (normally the handrails would go on last) but discussions are taking place on how to best address the troughing, damaged by rust where it rests on the abutments.

Bridge 5, Little Buckland

This is nearing completion, and we have been keen to to get the road open again as soon as possible.

Textile fitted to bridge 5

As Broadway, this bridge has also received a coating of resin, and once dry, the protective felt. This still has to be cut to shape and welded together.

 

Completed wing wall, in the pouring rain. Nice. Big lump of concrete in there now, holding it all up. Compare with the picture on our title page, it's the same corner.

The scaffolding has all gone, as has the security fencing. The brickwork is all completed (other than a bit of pointing and the fitting of the pilaster cap stones ), and the bird netting has been fitted on top of the abutment under the deck:

Bird netting in place (a bit faint, it's inside the deck, on top of the abutments)

The embankment is virtually back to its former level, whilst retaining the roadway through to bridge 4.

George Law's men were just about to sweep the road when we came to look on Friday, and then lay the signs flat for collection. So the road was probably technically open late that afternoon, another one that is off the list. Phew !

There is still some fencing to be installed down the wing wall slopes, ballast boards to fit to the steelwork, then the laying of ballast on the waterproofing felt. Then the final act will be the installation of the parapets – about Monday week (after delays at the factory making them!).

With Broadway bridge almost finished, the contractors are taking an increasingly greater interest in bridge two, so it's time we also took a look at this one:

Bridge 2, Childswickham Road

On Wednesday the scaffolding was erected under the bridge, and the parapet steelwork was removed. Here's what the site looks like from the road now:

View from the Broadway side

Holey moly !

 The stripping off of the old ballast and waterproofing was also completed. Some of the material where useable was trundled over to Broadway and dumped near to the newly built platform 1 northern extension, ready for infilling there. Always useful, as we can't access the Mythe rubble for the moment while bridge 1 is still without its ballast bed. 

As with the other steel decks at bridges 1 & 5,  the steel moths have been at work and there are around 10 to 12 holes and tears through the deck, one or two quite bad. There are also two old repairs that have come to light.

This is some serious hole. Those rust moths have had their avaricious way for too long.

 

Bridge deck, with ballast retaining wall broken out.

Looking north, towards the former goods yard.

The deck is now nice and clean and ready for shot blasting. The ends of the deck were also dug out, to reveal the ends of the steel supporting beams under the deck:

The same area at Broadway was pretty much corroded, and no doubt we will find the same thing here. But it can all be repaired.

Meanwhile, at Broadway, work was slowly drawing to a conclusion:

Bridge 1, Broadway

Although the bridge is now open for road traffic, work is still going on on the deck above, to make it ready for rails to be laid:

Yellow !

A specialised contractor came yesterday to apply a coat of resin to the repainted bridge deck. We are so lucky with the weather, and the deck was nice and dry to receive it. It was rather satisfying to watch the resin go on, thus protecting our historic bridge for a longer life.

An hour later, the painter had almost reached the end of the second deck, it was that quick!

Notice the banner that has already appeared again on the balustrade... it's for - the share issue ! Well, of course.We still need funds, now for the rails. £600.000 we heard on the telly last night. Wow, serious money! One month to go, if you want to benefit form the tax concession. After that, it's a plain purchase (still good, but without the pleasing kickback from HMRC).

After the resin coat, a layer of thick textile will be laid, upon which goes a bed of ballast. Originally, as can be seen by the remains of bits of angle iron along the deck, this and other bridges had way beams lengthways down the deck, with the rails fixed directly to them. The more modern and better way is to use a bed of ballast, which also doesn't rot. The ballast is on order and will go down shortly. Then there are the ballast boards to go along the edges of the track, which protect the road underneath from any bits that might fall down.