Update as at close of play on Monday:

Bridge 5, Little Buckland:

Repaired wing wall, Broadway side

Further digging has gone on and now about 50% of the ground behind the north abutment has been excavated and carted away. 

Broadway abutment - 50% of the dig has been completed here.

Broadway abutment, with wing wall blinding in the foreground

At 12.30 today, they were pouring some “blinding” concrete, to the highest two stepped levels of the upside wing wall, which will support the new strengthening concrete and the replacement brickwork.  

Leveling out the blinding concrete.

The blinding concrete is to create a level surface on which the shuttering can installed. As many people will be aware the wing walls on all of our bridges lean backwards at a slope of 1 : 6, i.e. in a 3M high wall the top will be 500 mm further back than the base. The old wall on the upside, Broadway end, has been completely removed and will be replaced with a thick concrete wall, which will be faced with 225 thick Engineering bricks to match the other 3 walls.

To construct this wall, shuttering will be required to both faces to form the correct slope and thickness. 

The 'root' of the former wing wall

 This wing wall was in such bad condition, that it has been completely removed, right down to its foundations. These seemed to be made of crushed stone only, possibly with a weak mix to hold it.

Overview of the Bridge 5 works at the end of Monday 28th July.

Whilst these works were going on the Tramblast was busy applying undercoat and top coat to the steelwork there, mainly working below deck level.

Bridge 3, Pry Lane

At bridge 3 the bricklayers were cutting out defective joints in the brick arch and parapet walls, and then pointing them up.

Bridge 1, Broadway

A quickie visit, right at the end of the day, finds the steelworkers still hard at work, and very cheerful. They were happy to give your reporter 5 mins of their time.

So how have they been doing, since the last visit by our structures engineer John, 2 working days ago?

A new joggle plate

Back at base in Wales, they have made themselves a supply of these joggle plates. They connect the web of the main girder to the flange underneath. Most were badly moth eaten, so these nice new ones are being welded in. Below is one that they took out - can you see why?  :-)

Moth eaten joggle plate.

I asked ' so what have you been doing', and the answer is clear: This lower flange on the Evesham side girder has had a nasty cut from a strike, and has to come off. Taking off the similar plate on the Broadway side took 14 hours, as it was mostly a question of removing the bolts from the 1975 repair. However, the Evesham side is a different kettle of fish. This side was never repaired, so the original rivets are still in place.Getting these out has been very hard work, and is taking more than twice as long as the other side. After cutting off one end, they are being forced out with a 20T press, but even so the fit is so tight that some have to be drilled out from above. The numerous strikes have twisted the plates, and this has made the rivets even tighter. The decking below was peppered with old rivets, so plenty of progress is being made by these plucky lads from Wales.

Above is a twisted girder, well inside and underneath the bridge. It seems incredible that whatever struck the girder on the outside seemed to bounce down, and rear up again underneath for a second strike. It's just another job that will be tackled.

This is a view of such a 'second strike' girder, with its bottom flange removed. The web itself is intact, and will be pressed back into shape and a new flange attached underneath. All pukka stuff.

Finally, a quick look at the drilling out of reluctant and tight fitting rivets. This is done from above, with a magnetic drill. The rivet is removed by drilling out its centre with a hollow drill bit. Slow and steady, and we are getting a quality job here.

The next major development expected is pouring the concrete at Little Buckland. Monday 4th August looks like the day that this will happen.