RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted March 19, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 19, 2014 Whilst Dawlish is closed, the various affected parties in the rail industry agreed to a request from Devon County Council and their contractors to construct a huge flood relief channel under the main line immediately to the west of Newton Abbot, where the railway is still four tracks wide. This is in connection with the Kingskerswell By-pass (aka the 'South Devon Link Road'). In the event, this entailed removing all running lines and digging a huge hole, in which the pre-cast concrete culvert sections were placed. The job started last Friday night and is due to finish this coming Friday at 1600 hrs. Here are a few photos taken by a colleague earlier in the job, plus several taken by me on a site visit yesterday. Here you can see the railway embankment, with the track on the left hand side covered over by large baulks of timber, creating a surface suitable for tracked plant. You can immediately get some appreciation of the size of the hole: Another view of the developing hole from a slightly different angle: Now to the Sunday morning, and here are several of the pre-cast sections waiting on lorry trailers to be unloaded: A giant crane was on hand to lift them in: The first section going in on Saturday. This was taken from track level, so you can get some appreciation of the depth of the hole: A few more sections are now in place: The work continues through the following night: Photos from my visit yesterday afternoon. The main site entrance, with the railway boarded over: Looking back towards Aller Jct: Turning round and looking towards Newton Abbot station: By the time I got there, the pre-cast sections were all in place and the team were rapidly filling the hole up again and compacting it down with a large road roller: A walk down to the actual culverts (there are three of them): Back up at track level: This is the old culvert next to the new one: View westwards, showing more of the new road construction in the distance: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Really good to see "joined-up" thinking between different organisations, to make the best of the window of opportunity that the Dawlish closure has provided. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Yes indeed. Any plans for one of those at Cowley Bridge? I note the real railway uses disc cutters as well, though probably a bit bigger than the average Dremel! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 You don't hang about down there! Let the drain take the strain. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Are you getting younger Andy? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 His jokes certainly aren't... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Are you getting younger Andy? Amazing what photoshop can do Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
black and decker boy Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 The contractor only had around 2 weeks notice of this and had a major panic on to get the concrete culverts as these are made to order, luckily, the northern Irish manufacturer had been making some for another project so they could get all this done whilst the line is closed and so avoid the planed closure for it next Christmas. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Alder Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Are you getting younger Andy? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Delamar Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 To me civil engineering projects are the most interesting part of the modern railway Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted March 19, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 19, 2014 Amazing what photoshop can do Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 20, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 20, 2014 Mike. That's nothing to do with Andy - there's no smoke. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted March 20, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 20, 2014 Considering the number of road schemes that now dump water onto fields next to the line and consequently straight into it that's very heartening to see. I like the fact it obviously has significantly greater capacity than the old one. Top job by all involved in having a plan ready to go and stepping it up so far in advance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted March 21, 2014 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21, 2014 Hopefully this job will be handed back a couple of hours early today, in early afternoon (booked at 1600 hrs), more info should be available soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted March 21, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21, 2014 Hopefully this job will be handed back a couple of hours early today, in early afternoon (booked at 1600 hrs), more info should be available soon. Well done to all concerned. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Wintle Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 The first thing I thought of when I saw the trench was an old photo I found of the trench that was dug to do a cut and cover section of the Toronto subway. The second thing was the LA River channel - but with Astras instead of real cars... Adrian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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