The last pile for this year’s bridge program was replaced today. Unfortunately the removal proved to be the trickiest part, with the old bolts taking several hours to get out.

Once we’d taken the old pile out and renewed the sill, we were able to trim the prepared pile to the correct length.

We drafted in the big digger with it’s grabs to make the job a little easier.

And easy it was, from picking the pile up to the final tweaks was less than 10 minutes, much easier than Tuesday’s method of slinging it with a chain.

Once the props were out, a little gentle weight from above to settle everything is always wise before backfilling.

And backfilled! If the bolts had chosen to behave themselves and come out easily this morning, we would have had enough time to bolt up the new pile, however at least it’ll keep tomorrow’s crew busy.

Tomorrow’s gang will head out from Maldon at 8am and be on site from 8.30am onwards.

A real pile of a day today. Infact it’s been 2 days of piling.

Yesterday saw us excavate two pile, both being changed due to being undersized, however otherwise perfectly sound timber. The pile pictured here will be replaced on Thursday, however the other, was completed today.

Today’s pile required a whole new sill to be prepared, which was promptly done.

The usual fine artistry of cutting a tongue to fit between the crossheads was done, taking slightly longer than usual due to an extremely hard and knotty piece of timber, it’ll last a long time, but it was incredibly tough.

And by day’s end, it was in, bolted up with braces refitted and ready for trains tomorrow! It looks funny with a hole there. However, the dirt offers no structural benefit to the bridge, rather it just aids in stabilising the piles over the years and during flood, so it’s quite safe for trains tomorrow.

Today’s pile was installed slightly higher (on purpose) than the previous one, removing what was quite a noticeable dip in the track above.

Thursday’s gang will meet at Maldon at 7.45am or on site from 8.15am to replace the next pile.

Today was an action packed day of welding.

We’ve now welded up and bolted (almost all) the angles back on, at the piers where we’ve installed the steel crossheads. We’ve still got two bolts to install, and that’s only due to us not having two bolts of the correct length available, however we’ve installed temporary short bolts to hold the cotton reels in place and allow tightening of the other bolts.

Time will be the tell now as to the success of this method, however we’re quietly confident this will work.

Next week will see the two new piles installed, Tuesday’s crew meeting at Maldon from 8am or on site from 8.45am.

Today saw us start the preparations for two new piles, that we’ll replace next week.

We’ve begun by marking up the piles, cutting the bottom shoulders and fitting up the wailers, as until we can excavate the existing piles we can’t measure exactly what lengths they need to be, this however kept us gainfully busy today.

We’ve used the most solid pieces of timber we could find for the wailers, some are the good sections of the old crossheads removed in previous weeks, while others are a second had grey box point timber, both should last many many years given the very high quality of the wood.

We’ve installed a good amount of termite treatment into the bottom of the timbers, should anything nasty find its way down there.

Today’s crew is now very well practised in the art of cutting bottom tongues, the top tongues are slightly different, especially given the crossheads are different in height, however the same basic skills apply.

We’ve even undertaken the first of the fixings for the angle braces onto the steel crossheads. This is a part of the trial, helping us to determine if a simpler method such as this is sufficient, we’ll be monitoring this closely over the coming months to watch for any weld cracking.

Tomorrow’s crew will be meeting at Maldon from 8am and on site from 8.30am, where we’ll do more of this welding and tightening up the bolts through the timber.