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.