BRIDGE 34 – GOTHERINGTON – SHORT 3RD UPDATE REPORT ON REPAIRS
With the benefit of a few days
of dry weather progress has quickly accelerated.
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| Ballast walls being rebuilt, looking towards Gotherington station |
The welders finished
mid-morning on Friday, one returning to Dundee, one to Cambridge and the Company
owner to Walsall. The photograph shows finished ballast plates & ballast wall
brickwork.
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| Cross beam connection |
The bricklayers came along on Thursday to construct new ballast retaining walls at both ends of the bridge.
There was a gang of 6 and when our engineer got to site at noon on Friday it was
about 90% completed. The photographs show the view from the Gotherington end, and the last bit at the north end
being finished.
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| View from Gotherington, looking north, down side |
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| View from Gotherington, looking north, up side |
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| North end ballast wall completed |
When our engineer left they were starting
to cover the finish painted steel so that they could blast clean and prime the
deck over the weekend, as the deck water-proofers were due in.
The painters also finished on Friday.
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| Finished painted steel |
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| Brick layers working under the bridge |
Apologies for the poor quality photograph here, but it's dark under the bridge.
The bridge repair contract is due to finish on Tuesday 27th February, and our P-way department then comes in on Wednesday 28th
February to put the track back. What is left to do is not that much. The
waterproofing only takes 1 day (Monday). The biggest job is to
construct the end of deck drains. They have mostly been dug, but have to
go a bit deeper and be backfilled with pea gravel. Then there is just
the ballast to go back down. The biggest job of all is probably to
remove the scaffolding and encapsulation, but that cannot be started
until 15th as it is being used on Thursday & Friday to fit new low headroom signs and wasp stripes.
The first public trains run on Saturday 10th March, with the first race train running on Tuesday 13th March. It's a tight schedule.
John Balderstone,
Structures Engineer
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNo pressure there then Jo! It looks a great deal better than when you started this job, so well done the team and the contractors for a great effort, hopefully it will all go back together again very smoothly. Also it will good to see the final job done pictures. Thanks again for bring the bridge blog back into the main site.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Paul & Marion
Yes, I entirely agree. Very well done. The repairs look really first class. It will look smashing when you've finished.
DeleteI didn't realise it is a low bridge. We,, we hope all will be well !
Peter
It's not a low bridge, no hits that I know of.
ReplyDeleteMinor road too.
Thanks, Jo. That's what I thought. But John's update on the excellent work they've done mentioned that "low headroom" signs with warning stripes were being fitted Thursday/Friday, so I wondered ...
ReplyDeletePeter
Any bridge with clearance of less than 16'-6" or 5.03m, requires Low Headroom signs.
DeleteYes the elimements were against us and the pressure was on and we were glad to complete this project on time against all the odds glad to be involved in this challenging project .
ReplyDeleteSteve @ uk site welding
Ps my bucket list is to drive a steam engine and stoke the fire :-)
ReplyDeleteSteve .
You can do this on the GWSR driving and firing course !
ReplyDelete