At last some visible progress, after a frustrating week with virtually just shotblasting activity on bridge 2. Well, there is a lot of shot blasting to do there.
Here is a little run through of the situation down the line:

Bridge 1, Broadway.
Open of course, but not 100% finished. This week, it's been the placing of the ballast boards:

A carpenter's kit at Broadway

They arrived on Wednesday. The tanalised timber for the wooden ballast deflection boards (our preferred name for them, as they divert any dislodged bits of ballast back onto the trackbed, stopping it from getting into the road!) have arrived and the carpenters started installing them today. 

Those 1975 repair bolts are a nuisance.

The work in the picture above looks very neat. Note the problem with trying to notch out around every bolt on the “major repair” section on the upper photograph. The space beneath the boards was a favourite one for discarding empty beer cans - no more. Now we are in a position to place some ballast, without any of it falling down on the road below.

Bridge 2, Childswickham Road

Tramblast have spent ages shotblasting here. Your blogger even saw shotblasting activity in the rain, from the safety of the Broadway cabin several hundred yards away. A quick mosey over then, after the sun had come out in the afternoon:

Roberto was working 'below decks' and you have to admire the determination of banging away at identical bits of steel day after day, encased in a space suit fed by an air line.

The bridge is fully enclosed, so from the road this is what you can see. There is a 'mousehole' for pedestrians and the numerous dog walkers. We understand the shot blasting here should be completed tomorrow morning, so that would clear the way for the next team.

Bridge 5, Little Buckland

This bridge is now also open of course, but work continues:

The parapet steel arrived on Friday at last, and the above picture shows the balustrades being off loaded.

This picture shows the mini digger 'walking' the balustrade along the trackbed and on to the bridge.

It was then lifted into place and bolted up. It's great that next to the mechanical bridge repair, our heritage with the return of the balustrades has not been forgotten. They look fantastic!

These two pictures show the bridge from both sides, now pretty much finished. The Broadway side pilaster caps still need to be fitted though. What a change from our blog title photo!

Note the new signage. A larger height restriction sign, and new wasp stripes have been fitted. Looks very professional! I think the depth gauge might need a polish though, otherwise it won't be getting much attention this winter.