BRIDGE 34 – GOTHERINGTON – 4th UPDATE REPORT ON REPAIRS
MONDAY 12TH FEB
With a couple of dry days last
week the contractors were able to blast clean the deck plates
and then prime them.
On Thursday the waterproofing contractors came in and applied the
waterproofing ...
... followed by the fitting of a double layer of quilting to
prevent damage from the ballast.
The end is now definitely in
sight and even bad weather will not affect progress significantly.
Most of the
repaired timber ballast boards have now been put back, with just a few
yet to go in.
With the deck waterproofing and quilt covering
complete, (quilt yet to be laid on the upside) the next thing is to
install the end of deck drains. The ones put in years ago were too shallow and
were allowing water to come out on top of the padstones, corroding the steel
bearings and also run down the face of the abutments wetting the abutment
walls.
New ones, surrounded by pea gravels encased in a Geotextile quilt to
stop silting up are being installed.
At the same time the new brick
ballast walls are being given a concrete backing to protect them from
any future mechanical tamping machinery.
New large (900mm diam) height
warning signs are being fitted to replace the old very small triangular ones.
We have also added wasp stripes to highlight the low bridge situation. Because
the bridge is skewed at 60 degrees extra steelwork has had to be fitted to make
the height warning sign square to the road.
With all work beneath the
bridge now completed the dismantling of the scaffolding started today.
This has already revealed the newly painted outer girders and the new sign and
wasp stripes.
John Balderstone,
GWSR Structural Engineer,
Monday 12.2.2018
Many thanks to John Balderstone for the latest update. It's magnificent workmanship, but I agree, getting the job finished and the track relaid is going to be a tight schedule ! The PW team have already got their hands full, but they're a brave lot.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with it !
Peter
Thanks for the update, the bridge looks very smart now, a good job done well. Now the PW Dept. needs to relay the track so hopefully they get good weather, Jo, just send a reminder to Mrs. B for some cake and advise Pauls Catering Coach to be ready for the feeding of the gang, if the weather continues as it has they will need all the sustenance they can get!!!
ReplyDeleteRegards
Paul & Marion
So when does the road re-open?
ReplyDeleteAre you going to paint LOW BRIDGE on the bridge in large fluorescent letters?
ReplyDeleteSeems to be the usual practice on recent road bridge works.
Will there be any coverage by webcam?
The road does not carry much heavy goods traffic so it was not worth the money to fit LOW BRIDGE signs. Also the bridge has only had one very minor bump, at least 12 years ago, which did not cause enough damage to need repairing. The road is officially closed until 28th Feb. but we may be able to open it slightly sooner.
ReplyDelete