Well anti-termites really. Today was about installing and renewing the chemical stick termite treatment into Muckleford Creek Bridge.
It’s quite a simple process, whereby a few small holes are drilled into each pile, as many sticks as can be shoved down the hole are and a plastic plug is installed to keep them dry and in place.
The chemical rods, are just a formulated mix of boron and fluoride, which as moisture is absorbed by the pile, causes the rods to slowly dissolve and permeate into the wood, making it very undesirable to termites and fungal growths.
They only need renewing about every 10-15 years. It’s a very cheap insurance policy to keep the bridges in good condition, as termite damage can quickly destroy enough of a bridge to make it unusable.
Tomorrow will be a bit more of the same, as there’s 5 other bridges that are due the same treatment! Meeting at Maldon at 8am.
Today saw lots of odd bridge jobs, the first of which was bolting up the angle brackets for yesterday’s crosshead.
Just a few simple holes and bolts and job done!
Then we went onto installing some missing shoulder packing. The first being at Farmers Bridge. The props are to ensure the crosshead is sitting exactly where it should be before installing the packing.
We had a few of these to do here.
While there it was a good chance to do a complete bolt tighten.
Another bit of packing was required at Winters Flat, with lots of ground level bolt tightening also undertaken.
We finished off the day by doing a thorough ground level bolt tighten of Rifle Range Bridge. Leaving only Sawmill Rd, Walmer Rd and Muckleford Creek for Tuesday’s Gang. Check back Monday for details of Tuesday’s Meeting Point.
Earlier this week, the replacement pile for 28L was prepared and the old pile excavated ready for a changeover today.
Before long the old was out and we were about ready to put the new in.
A little fine tune was required on one shoulder, but nothing major. The photos make it appear the bridge is floating in mid air, however some heavy duty props are just out of sight doing all the work.
Termite protection was installed around the base of both this pile and last week’s pile, to help slow down any unwelcome visitors. We don’t have a massive termite problem, but we could if we don’t keep on top of the treatment.
Once backfilled and tidied up it looked quite presentable.
Once a few holes were drilled, bolts installed and a benchmark had been completed it was job done!
The next job was the replacement of another failed crosshead, 24D (the down side crosshead of the 24th pier). Although not technically failed yet, it’s days were numbered, so we did the exchange.
The heavy lifting is all done with the digger, however the hardest part is getting the old bolts out, which was probably the longest part of this job.
We’re not quite finished fastening this crosshead up, so that’ll be tomorrow morning’s job. Meeting at Muckleford Creek Bridge from 8.30am.
Given this pile is relatively short and doesn’t extend greatly below ground level, we did install termite treatment prior to placing it in the ground.
A nice easy lift in for the little digger, since we’ve changed to using grabs, the days of trying to crane in the piles with chains and guide ropes are gone, taking what was a three or four person job into a one digger and one spotter job.
In and positioned. And no the clamp isn’t actually holding the pile there, it’s just so we could align the angle iron to make sure the holes lined up… which they did thankfully.
And after several hours of shovelling, it was backfilled! The digger did help a little.
As we actually installed this pile in the correct location (the last one was a bit off set), new holes were required and with a nice new sharp drill bit, this was an absolute breeze.
And job done! We did also replace the rear crosshead at the same time, as it was beyond Salvage. Thankfully besides being an insurance policy, the outer crosshesd really doesn’t do very much.
On Tuesday we’ll begin replacing the pile on the other side of the pier. Meeting at Maldon at 8am or at the Bridge from 8.30am.
A few more pics from earlier in the week…
Marking up the pile with the smallest level we could find!
Towards the end of last year, our Yard at Muckleford was used as storage for 2nd hand timber sleepers released out of the Echuca Line Upgrade. The sleepers were destined for other tourist and heritage groups around Victoria and this week saw them loaded up and trucked off to their new homes.
Although we didn’t actually keep or need any of the sleepers ourselves, we are glad we could help the other railways reduce their costs by providing our Excavator for loading and making Muckleford available as a storage area. Hopefully we can help the T&H sector with more material acquisitions like this.
