The bridges overhaul nears a conclusion!
During our visit this morning there was a little more visible progress to
report, although the contractors are now spending quite a lot of time on cleaning
up the site, disposing of surplus equipment, fencing and the like – not
very inspiring or photogenic work – but necessary as the contract draws
to a close.
BRIDGE 2
Still to do are the wooden ballast boards (awaiting the carpenters), leveling the ballast over the ends, and changing the wasp stripes and height limit sign (supplied by the council), which to our astonishment showed that the bridge was limited in width, not height.
BRIDGE 3
This
bridge is now completed, following the addition of the somewhat
complicated height warning signs. This is probably the
first time that there have been any such signs here since the bridge
was built !
The picture above also shows the completed post and rail
fence up the wing wall slopes.
BRIDGE 4
This
too has moved into the very last stages. The deck waterproofing has
been completed and the protecting ballast has been laid on top.
The newly applied ballast is retained at the edges with simple flat ballast boards.
The
painting of the underside of the whole deck troughing system has been
completed. The infill of the trough that ends with brickwork, as
permanent shuttering, can also be seen and this being the final item,
the access scaffolding will now be removed.
All
that was left to be done this morning was the
construction of the 4 isolated bases to the end standards of the
handrails. The shuttering for these can be seen above and
these were to be filled this afternoon. In the same picture you can also
see the new capping stones to the stub pilasters that this bridge had.
A
new gate has also been fitted to close off the access from the
adjoining farm.
The
only thing now left is the stripping of the shuttering from the hand rail
blocks and the addition of some extra ballast around them and at the
deck ends.
The
very last job is the touching up of the handrail paint, which was
damaged slightly when they had to be removed to strengthen the deck.
Other news:
We are heartbroken to have to report that Broadway bridge was hit by a skip lorry at 12.50 on November 26th, while the Broadway gang was at work there. The skip scraped along the underside and damaged the paintwork and bolt ends. The lorry made off in reverse without leaving any details, however, we know the owner and registration number. The police have been informed.
To cap it all, Broadway bridge was hit a second time yesterday evening at 22.30hrs, in a similar way. Again the paintwork underneath was damaged, and one bolt was ripped out. The lorry involved was an articulated curtain sider, and after stopping briefly, again made off without leaving details. It must have suffered some damage, as several pieces of steel were left by the roadside. If anyone can give us more information on this second collision, we would be grateful to hear.
It seems to me that we should consider the possibility of installing protective steel girder beams on either side of the bridge a few feet away from the bridge. Preferably large and solid enough to damage the lorries rather more than they would damage the bridge! Owners of the vehicles (and their insurers) would soon get the message. This is not an unusual solution - it has been used at similar sites of regular, multiple bridge strikes.
ReplyDeleteMartins solution sounds good and should be seriously considered .Adopting a belt & braces approach why not add proximity sensors to activate warning lights when high sided vehicles approach the bridge? If these fail then CCTV would be useful to supply evidence in the event of a strike.
ReplyDeleteWith the closure of the Leamington Road in Broadway, until March, next year, I was always afraid this was going to happen to our beautifully restored bridge. Despite the very obvious restricted height and diversion signs on the by-pass, it would seem that either drivers do not know the height of their vehicles, or are unwilling to take the long diversion to get to the Cheltenham Road and the villages along it. I agree with the previous comments. I thought CCTV was going to be employed, as well?
ReplyDeleteAs per Martins solution- these barriers are deployed on the Birmingham Road bridge in Warwick..... this will happen several times a month without such precautions in place.
ReplyDeleteSteve
Don't todays high-tech trucks have some sort of low bridge warning system on board? You'd think satnavs would have this function...
ReplyDeleteAs others have said above, I suspect the only real solution would be a Big Chunk Of Steel across the road, to give trucks something to hit that's not actually the bridge.
This Google Streetview photo shows how Network Rail have done it on a bridge over Old Street in London, on the old LMS line to Broad Street (now part of the London Overground). Interesting how the crasdh beam is fixed to the walls at either end - presumably with some hefty reinforcement behind the brickwork...
http://tinyurl.com/old-street-bridge
Or closer to home, another example is the Hyde Lane bridge in Swindon Village. This bridge is quite regularly struck and seems to escape major damage since the installation of the protection, which if I recall was installed after the bridge needed extensive repairs after a strike.
ReplyDeletehttps://goo.gl/maps/Zun8l
Some pretty hefty steel tied into the abutment mind - it would be massively expensive.
While working at CRC2 a few weeks back we saw a single decker bus go past on the main road - it was a double decker that had just struck Hyde lane bridge. It was perfectly driveable, just a bit lower :-)
DeleteNot the first time a double decker has been 'converted' there! :)
DeleteHaving a quick Google around, it seems the original lengthy repairs were due to stress cracking of the cross girders. Its a long time ago but I'm reasonably sure that the bridge was struck again after repair and the protection steelwork was added some time after that.
I no longer live in the area but perhaps one of the blog readers has more detail.
Also can I just say what a fantastic job is being done on the bridges and the Broadway site and also for the quality blogging to keep us all up-to-date.
Andy
A swift image search brings up this bridge in Bradford, which has had a slightly different arched beam placed in front of it...
Deletehttp://www.revival.stormshadow.com/railways/bradford-bridges-2008/dscf2054.jpg
...although, again, it's fixed to the masonry abutments (presumably with some concrete reinforcement behind). That seems to me to be the expensive bit of the job. There's some hefty civil engineering involved there.
Would it be possible to make a free-standing arch out of just 3 steel beams, and 'plant' this in the ground just in front of the bridge at Broadway? That would avoid having to extensively rebuild the abutments to mount a crash beam.
And maybe a sign like this...
http://depletedcranium.com/oldrrcrossingproto.jpg
There's an article in this month's Railway Magazine about an ECML bridge in Grantham that has been struck 30-40 times a year. NR are, at last, to install a sacrificial beam to help reduce the disruption to rail and road services that inspections cause after each strike. Lincolnshire Police seem unable to say if there have been any prosecutions for driving without due care and attention.
ReplyDeleteYes, the main A52 bridge in the town already has massive steel beams to protect the ECML but is still hit regularly. The bridge being protected at the moment is Springfield Road Bridge which is the lowest of all in the town. Work has been delayed as more damage has been found to the structure adding to the congestion in the town but I am surprised that this bridge, and the Harlaxton Road bridge for that matter, didn't have these beams fitted years ago. Damage caused by large vehicles isn't limited to bridges; kerbside railings and of course the road surface itself is regularly damaged by large heavy vehicles carrying stuff which IMHO should go by rail if we had a decent railway network like we used to.
DeleteHow about a laser beam across the road to a detector. When the beam is broken, it automatically deploys a stinger, thus rendering the offending vehicle able to pass safely under the bridge.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!
ReplyDeleteThe amount of correspondence that I seem to have started on this subject is evidence that feelings about incompetent, careless, truck driver's in close proximity to low bridges run rather high! I only wish that a few of the culprits read this blog - but then, the evidence seems to be that they can't read anyway,
ReplyDeleteCan you ask the local Police if they can carry out extra patrols in the area and deal with high vehicles trying to get through? Or what about 'Bridge watch' where you have a person on each side of the bridge in a deck chair and high vid jacket looking out for high vehicles, and if one approaches use a stop sign to stop them? Aaron.
ReplyDeleteIn Grantham, both the A52 and the Harlaxton Road rail bridges have temporary mobile electronic signs in addition to the standard warning signs and massive "Low Bridge" signs. A bridge watch is being undertaken here by a contractor but I presume that the Lincolnshire County Council and/or Network Rail are paying for the staff and the kit.
DeleteThe drivers could lose their licenses 3 points for the road sign, 5 - 10 points not reporting the collision, 3 - 9 points careless driving. The police should be looking at prosecuting for all 3 offenses giving between between 11 and 22 points plus fine, compensation, criminal record and possible time in prison!
ReplyDeleteI think having 2 people on the bridge, presumably working 3 shifts to cover 24 hours a day, would be asking a bit much of volunteers' loyalty!
ReplyDeleteAssuming each shift is 8 hours long, this would tie up a total of 6 volunteers in a very dull job, who wouldn't be able to do anything else....
It would also be virtually impossible for anyone on the bridge to assess the height of approaching vehicles at a distance. How could you tell if that truck thundering towards you at 40mph is just about low enough - or three inches too high?
You'd have to stop *every* high vehicle to check. I don't even know if it's legal for members of the public to effectively set up a roadblock like that. The haulage companies would be straight on to their lawyers!
And you can bet that if a bridge strike did happen, it would be at the precise moment when the bridge-watcher had popped off for a toilet break...
I don't think extra police patrols would be effective, either. The best the police could manage would be to drive by once or twice a day. The chances of the coppers being on hand at the moment of a bridge strike would be pretty remote.
If a constant watch really does need to be kept, a simple CCTV installation would do the trick - as has already been done elsewhere on the railway.
Get the registration number of the offending vehicle, and throw the book at 'em.
A word of caution - the bridge in the article below already has a laser/radar guage linked to flashing warning signs, and another bridge on Wootton Basset road has two big steel beams attached to it, but in neither case has a vehicle been stopped from getting all the way underneath and becoming wedged. First priority would be to catch the idiots responsible so they can pay to have the damage repaired and for upgrades to protection systems.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11617876.Lorry_lodged_under_bridge_in_Corporation_Street_slows_traffic/
I'm beginning to think that the only solution is to lower the road surface by about 3 feet! How many tons of spoil would that be? It would certainly close the road for a couple of months and perhaps re-train the errant drivers to go round the by-pass.
ReplyDeleteThe A44 bypass is not a bypass for the B4632. Also, Andy Protherough's hugely informative picture blog at
ReplyDeletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/gwr-lineside-drainage-management/
shows how difficult the area is for lowering surfaces under bridges.
I am sure great minds are at work on this. If Jo can tell us when the 2230 driver is caught, that would cheer this shareholder up no end! This is a great blog.
Howard, my comment was (ever so slightly) tongue in cheek, since I am aware that with the greatest will in the world, lowering the road surface is not really feasible! Martin
DeleteA third bridge strike took place last night. All three were of vehicle a few inches higher, that scraped through underneath.
ReplyDeleteBlummin' 'eck, I presume by the "last night" they weren't caught? Definitely something needs doing now, even if only temporary whilst something more substantial is considered
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteJo, this isn't fair from me, but could you just assure us that the police are 'fully engaged' please? (I'm thinking of forensic evidence and observational evidence. I mean, just a CCTV taking an image of every vehicle and changing 'the tape' every 24 hours could be useful).
ReplyDeleteOn single carriageway trunk roads there is a system of blue pole cameras that photos every vehicle that passes. The firm, Traffic Master, times the passing of each vehicle and uses these data to tell us whether there are jams, by reference to the passing times at each pole. You see the results on the Highways Agency maps online. (sadly not on local authority roads).
I just wonder whether it would not be useful to contact a supplier to see what could be done. Perhaps that is already being investigated, in which case my apologies, but perhaps the knowledge that the technology is there, may begin to comfort those of us, who are enraged about what's happening.
I can't answer the 'police fully engaged' question, that's asking too much from a blogger. The police have been informed, that much I do know.
DeleteThe police have also been at the bridge twice recently with a speed gun, with some success as we could see.
I was standing on the platform on Saturday and was stunned to see a skip lorry, with a tall skip of the type that made the first strike, head towards the bridge at undiminished speed. I was braced for the impact, but none came. Didn't cross his mind to slow down, in case!
Absolutely disgusting after all that hard work!! Any photos of the damage please? Aaron
ReplyDeleteAaron, the pictures don't show much (everything is brown...) but all the bolts have been scraped, two have been ripped out, and the lighting system for the two height restriction signs cut in the latest strike.
DeleteAlternative could be to attach paint bombs to the bottom of the bridge, the vehicles would be clearly marked and easy for the police to spot!
DeleteHmm cameras to record the details? Plus signage may help deter. Graham
ReplyDeleteJo, I take it the county highways dept is responsible for the signs /lighting & have been informed? Does the bridge need examining by an engineer..Roy
ReplyDeleteJo thank you for your patient replies. The paint bomb was a good one Tim, pigs entrails (etc) could be good for DNA tests, bit pongy though!
ReplyDeleteI think it's the fact that many of us are so far away and feel so helpless. I hope this gets sorted soon.
All the best.
Just got the solution to this one it works too some modifications may be needed to accommodate farmers (locked bypass gates) - http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/picture_update_lorry_blocking_gapton_hall_road_in_great_yarmouth_is_cleared_1_1232383# or http://i4.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article613818.ece/alternates/s615/C_71_article_1417915_image_list_image_list_item_0_image.jpg
ReplyDeleteIt should be made law that all high HGVS carry sensors on the front. If they drive towards a low bridge etc, then a high pitch alarm sounds! Aaron
ReplyDeleteAnon 1516
ReplyDeleteWere that a good suggestion. Decades ago a Belgian lorry driver drove northwards through the Velsertunnel in Holland after setting off blinking lights and alarms, due to his hitting the height bridge paced before the tunnel, precisely for that purpose, namely to save the tunnel from damage.
He just drove on obliviously, bringing down the roof fittings right to the other end and causing millions of guilders of damage.
The story became famous in Holland, mainly because of the nationality of the unfortunate driver. Jo knows what I mean by that.
Actually, just thought further and if the result was that the engine was switched off and the brakes were applied, a good one. Many years down the road, we shall have such technology. Actually we have it now, but try suggesting that drivers have a speed governor in their car that prevents them exceeding the speed limit or driving too close behind another car.
ReplyDeleteI notice on motorway workings that poles and buntings are put up where there are overhead obstacles. Whilst it might be a good idea to have an electrified bunting, could it not be possible to site a steel gantry some way from the bridge so when struck it will give warnings of the danger of proceeding. Certainly be cheaper to repair a gantry then the bridge.CCTV will identify the vehicle for cost
ReplyDeleterecovery, and no more major bridge alterations fit beams to abutments
Barry M
You can erect a steel gantry some way before the bridge on the Continent, but it's not allowed in the UK.
DeleteYou can have a 'sacrificial beam' attached to the bridge however - there are quite a few examples on Network Rail bridges.Cost and legal issues apply though.