West
Vale Branch |
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| 15
March 2003 The bottom is reached |
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At the end of the previous work party, the concrete layer that had been under the culvert pipe had been broken with a Kangol breaker. For the time-being there was little to do at the bridge site except digger work. For this reason, a party of 3 (plus Alan) starting work trimming the hedge on the towpath near the pocket park, while Phil and Chris headed off to the bridge to continue excavation. At lunch time I went along the bridge site to see how work was progressing. It had
been decided that the western "lagoon" would be the best place
to put the spoil from the remaining infill. This would mean that we would
no longer have to pump it out every work party and we were beginning to
run short of space for putting spoil. When I arrived the lagoon had been
partially filled from the bank to give the digger access to the bridge.
Chris had then removed the broken concrete layer and had made a start
removing the remaining infill. |
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We need to have what remains of the bridge
inspected as soon as possible so that we know how much we can reuse. Much
of the brickwork that we have unearthed will almost certainly require
rebuilding, but we needed to to reveal all of what remains of the bridge.
This sort of bridge requires an inverted arch in the bed of the canal that
helps stop the sides pushing inwards. We were hoping that the invert would
be in a good condition which would mean that the foundations would not
need too much work and that they could be reused.
Having excavated the first half of the infill Chris decided to call it a day. Easier said than done. Chris ran in to "maneuverability difficulties" - in other words he got stuck! After a cup of tea (and some timely advice from George who just happened to show up) he finally got the digger on to the bank. Hopefully the rest of the infill will be removed on the next work party.
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