The past two days, we’ve been in bridge repair mode, with the failing wailers on pile 27L replaced yesterday, with lots of anti fungal treatment.
Today saw us re-install the bolts and pack pile 27R to remove a slight dip in the bridge. We’ve now got a spectacular hump in the track, which we’ll quite easily be able to rectify by lifting the track a distance either side (we’d purposely not lifted this too much previously to allow for this).
As the temperature rose and the sun began to scorch, we decided an easier job would be to prepare a set of steel crossheads, by whipping out the magnetic drill and predrilling the pile bolts holes. As yet it’s too hard to predict the location of the angle bolts (as we’ll reuse the old bolt holes), but we can do that in place comparitively easily. We’ve also marked up the pile shoulders for cutting to allow for the taller crossheads.
Tuesday should see us make a significant start on getting this set of steel crossheads installed. Meeting at Maldon at 7.45am or out on site around 8.15am.
VGR Civil Blog 