Baiter Park Bridge replacement 09th September 2006 continued
The final 2 sections of the bridge are brought to the site from the car park as the setting sun reflects from the cabs windscreen.
These will fit to the ends of the decking and will provide a stairway as well for track personnel to use. Unfortunately I did not witness the installation of the side sections as I was feeling rather sick and extremely tired so I decided to call it a day.
September 10th 2006
Sunday morning and the contractors have been busy. The bridge sides have been fixed into place, the plating for the stairs is now fixed in place, the hole has been filled in and levelled to track level and the up line has been re-laid and welded.
A zoomed in shot of one of the road/rail excavator's relaying the old concrete sleepers on the down line.
A side shot shot showing the the newly installed bridge. A top the p-way gang are laying and aligning the sleepers on the down line, whilst below at sea level (and yes I really do mean sea level!) 2 brickies are laying bricks underneath the decking.
Work had to stop shortly after I took this photo as the water was starting to come over the top of the scaffolding, making it unsafe to work.
As yet un-ballasted but freshly laid and welded, the up line and the steps on the inside of the bridge are clearly visible in this shot.
Slowly the excavator makes its way to the other side of the bridge whilst laying the sleepers for the down line.
More fine adjustment for the final positioning of the sleepers.
The rails are then dragged into position by the road/railer.
Just before I left the welding guys turned up and started to off load their welding equipment to weld the rest of the rails together. All that was needed to be done was to relay the 3rd rail and associated cables and then to finish ballasting the newly laid track.
PLEASE NOTE:- The following 5 photographs were not taken by me but by Network Rail. So all credit and copyright goes to Network Rail and not me.
The finished bridge looking from Poole Park towards the main worksite. © Network Rail
View of the Sluice gate control mechanism with the new bridge as a backdrop. © Network Rail.
Looking towards the main worksite from the up line. The third rail has been gapped here. I am unsure on whether it was in the first place. © Network Rail
Looking towards Parkstone station direction. Note the new steps that I mentioned about earlier. © Network Rail
Looking towards Poole Harbour with Sandbanks and Brownsea island in the background. © Network Rail.
This page updated:- 12th November 2006
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