Muckleford Creek Bridge is certainly on the way to needing a new deck, which as I’m sure anyone can imagine is an enormous amount of timber at an enormous cost! Given the last decking has really only lasted 30 years (and the other bridges are hinting at a similar rate of decay), it’s time to seriously consider alternatives.

One such alternative that we’ve decided to trial is Recycled Plastic, and today was the day we took that trial from paper and put it into practice.

So we began by removing a short section of the old deck at the very down end of the Bridge, which is nice and low, straight and good easy access, important things when trial fitting the new deck.

The panels that we made up last week were then lifted onto the bridge, slewed under the rails from the side, only a small amount of rail jacking was required to achieve this.

We then simply continued that process two and half more times to get the rest of the deck in, which actually did end up being very easy, with very little to no manual input required. We’re looking for a solution that means we can do these sorts of works without having to do the work at heights, hence this method has proven to be very effective, with the construction taking place on the ground.

We expect it would look very noticeably different to the timber, however it’s not as different as we expected, it slightly narrower, due to the available length of plastic, however otherwise pretty much identical dimensions to the timber decking, so it’s not really a massive change.

The final appearance is probably a little too neat for a typical timber bridge, a bit too uniform.

We were extremely pleased with the ease and speed with which it was installed, it was a learning curve and no doubt we could speed up the process significantly if we need to.

We gave up when it looked like the rain was about to hit, however tomorrow is a day of finishing fastening up the sleepers (plastic also, as we do want to get a option which is essentially maintenance free going forward), ballasting, tamping and running a testing and commissioning train to verify the design as suitable.

There won’t be any issues structurally, as the rails are directly over the beams, so the decking serves no more purpose than just to contain ballast, and transfer the load straight down to the beams, any issues will be more if the modified design with no tie rods and through bolts is sufficient to prevent movement of the kerbs, which is really a thing that’ll take a few years to evaluate, but it’s an extremely easy fix if we find an issue – just add them.

Tomorrow’s crew will be meeting at Maldon at 8am, where we will need a few truck drivers (Mick.. if we get this), then at the Bridge from 8.30am.

Today was spent preparing for the decking renewals on Thursday / Friday, however that took all of about 1 hour, so we spent the rest of the day attending to numerous track faults across the bridge. The main one being the rather horrendous line issues it’s had.

Hopefully in these pics you can appreciate how much we’ve managed to improve that! Significantly, this was mainly achieved be re-lining the deck on the beams, a job we’d put off for a long time, not really sure how to best go about it. It’s been wrong for many decades, since it’s rebuild back in the 90s

Turns out if you remove the blocks between the runners and beams, a gentle push on the decking with the big digger and it just moves to wherever it needs to go! Simply install new blocks to keep it from moving and job done.

Kicking ourselves a little that we didn’t try this year’s ago, however it’s only now we’re really getting far enough ahead in the other jobs to dedicate the time to these issues.

It’s still by no means perfect, however, once we rerail with some good straight 80lb rail, it’ll be just as good as our other recent bridge re-rails.

Thursday’s gang will be meeting at Maldon at 8am or out by Muckleford Creek Bridge from 8.30am.

Well, we had a very interesting day today, experimenting with using recycled plastic as bridge decking. It’s a concept we’ve wanted to try for a long time, exploring alternatives to timber.

We’ll be trialling the success of this over the next few months to determine its suitability as a alternative to timber, especially in regards to durability, appearance, ease of install etc etc.

We’ll go into this in much more detail next week, however it should be quite an interesting project. It turns out it’s very quick to assemble and very easy to work with, we’ll cover all the specifics next week, as it’ll make much more sense once it’s in place.

We’ve preconstructed the deck, with gravel beams (kerbs), something which can be done with timber, but it really then requires a crane to install given the weight, however this is significantly lighter and should be easily managed with the big digger.

It’s been assembled in 3 sections, stacked onto a trolley, ready for taking out to site next week. The trial bridge will be Muckleford Creek, given its decking is due for renewal in the next few years. We’ll undertake the rest of the assembly on site, late next week, with Tuesday’s gang preparing the bridge for the swap.

On Tuesday we’ll meet at Maldon at 8am or out by Muckleford Creek Bridge from 8.30am.

We did it!!! We’ve joined up to the existing 80lb in curve 7.

Although not the very final bit of rerailing, today was a massive milestone in the process, with only Winters Flat Bridge and Sawmill Rd Crossing left in 60lb now.

Today only required 5 and a bit lengths of 80lb to be installed to close the gap, which, given our rather impressive gang turnout, happened rather easily and quickly.

For some reason the final 5 rails provided us a few more hurdles than we’ve had for some kms, two sleepers needed moving and one rail required trimming, however it was nice knowing it was the last time we’d need to do it (in this fashion anyhow).

Before long the final long rail was in, with roughly a 6m closure required to join the two sections of 80lb.

It wasn’t long before a suitable rail was found, cut, drilled and bolted in.

Before long it was time for the golden clip ceremony (not real gold incase anyone was getting any ideas…). The final pair of clips required to make this section trafficable.

A few customary short speeches, and the finished product, looking pretty snazzy.

However, the day certainly didn’t end there, with foot crossing rehabilitation and jewellery collection following the achievement.

We’ve also collect all the jewellery drums, implements, power packs and odds and ends, taking them back through to Muckleford or Maldon.

There’s still a lot to go and we’re still in needs of help for many many years to come to truly complete the task, however being able to see all that rail no longer lying in the middle of the track, but actually in the track, is a fantastic thing. Everyone involved should be extremely proud of their effort, and we really can’t thank you enough for time, effort and dedication you’ve shown.

Tomorrow will be a complete change of pace, where we’ll be up a Maldon, working on a new and exciting project. Join us from 8am at Maldon to find out more!