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Folkestone-Dover sea wall wash-out


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The bridge is FRP (reinforced plastic) but is made to give the impression of steel. Steel & concrete were rejected on longetivity grounds. Strange to tap the "beams" and feel plastic

The final stair was released around 9pm and the site is closed until midday to give everyone a shift break.

Great photos David, I'll post something later.

 

Updated:

 

pic17.jpg

First flight

pic13.jpg

 

 

pic18.jpg

Second flight

 

 

pic16.jpg

Completed bridge

 

pic15.jpg

Beach works

 

Timelapse to follow...

Edited by ffinybryn
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The bridge is FRP (reinforced plastic) but is made to give the impression of steel. Steel & concrete were rejected on longetivity grounds. Strange to tap the "beams" and feel plastic

The final stair was released around 9pm and the site is closed until midday to give everyone a shift break.

Great photos David, I'll post something later.

 

Updated:

 

pic17.jpg

First flight

pic13.jpg

 

 

pic18.jpg

Second flight

 

 

pic16.jpg

Completed bridge

 

pic15.jpg

Beach works

 

Timelapse to follow...

Thanks for the update, very much like the last shot, from your drone.

 

So how you getting on with your 3D printer ?

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The bridge is FRP (reinforced plastic) but is made to give the impression of steel. Steel & concrete were rejected on longetivity grounds. Strange to tap the "beams" and feel plastic

 

Fascinating how 'what goes around comes around' on the railways.

 

I joined a plastic buildings R&D Group in BR(E) CCE's in 1961 on coming straight out of university.

We managed to produce just one building - a GRP relay room erected at Pitsea on the LT&S (fabricated at Park Royal by Mickleover Transport - makers of London's electric milk floats of that era ).

 

No more BR structures were made from the moulds.

In retrospect our thinking about plastic lineside buildings being light and 'instantly' placed in the course of a weekend's possession was fundamentally flawed - polyester resin is a petrochemicals industry product - by comparison timber is a renewable resource, light as well as durable.

However BR and Mickleover eventually got therir money back from the British Antarctic Survey choosing our moulds to produce a much larger modular structure for a Base that may still be there buried under deep snow rifts.

 

It would be interesting to know what the F in FRP stands for, but with GRP (laminated fibreglass) the problem was always UV attack on the gel coat, causing the surface to craze and breakdown. Thus the structure would later need to be painted at intervals to prevent laminating glass fibres from causing a nuisance. Buried under metres of snow near the South Pole, UV breakdown was never a problem.

 

Hopefully the chemistry of thermosetting plastics has moved on in 50 years.

dh

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The bridge has been said to have been "FRP" and "GRP".  Consensus is that it is Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic, so technically GFRP would be correct.

 

The bridge was built in Plymouth by Pipex (not the ISP provider!). http://www.pipexpx.com

 

As promised, here is the World premiere of the second timelapse video (with bonus bits) taken on Sunday.  Apologies, but due to the nature of the amount of lifting that actually took place, the time spent watching this video is not refundable.  : )

 

https://youtu.be/2SW_MAP-fVE

 

and some final shots of the bridge:

 

pic21.jpeg

 

pic22.jpeg

 

pic23.jpeg

 

pic24.jpeg

 

pic25.jpeg

 

Bridge builders PipexPx have recently been taken over by American company NOV, hence the Americanised "Fiber Glass"

Edited by ffinybryn
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The bridge has been said to have been "FRP" and "GRP".  Consensus is that it is Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic, so technically GFRP would be correct.

 

The bridge was built in Plymouth by Pipex (not the ISP provider!). http://www.pipexpx.com

 

As promised, here is the World premiere of the second timelapse video (with bonus bits) taken on Sunday.  Apologies, but due to the nature of the amount of lifting that actually took place, the time spent watching this video is not refundable.  : )

 

https://youtu.be/2SW_MAP-fVE

 

and some final shots of the bridge:

 

pic21.jpeg

 

pic22.jpeg

 

pic23.jpeg

 

pic24.jpeg

 

pic25.jpeg

 

Bridge builders PipexPx have recently been taken over by American company NOV, hence the Americanised "Fiber Glass"

 

 

 

There you go, the video.

 

http://youtu.be/2SW_MAP-fVE

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This photo, depicts the area on the West entrance/exit of Shakespeare Tunnel.

Channel tunnel spoil extraction creating the area now known as Samphire Hoe.

 

attachicon.gifimage.jpeg

The contrast to today's tranquility is amazing. The area nearest the railway pre-existed the 20th century tunnel building, and originally housed a colliery and some cottages, only accessible by train, or descending a very precipitous stairway from the cliff top.

When the 1970s tunnel build started, one of the first jobs was to excavate the road tunnel between the re-routed A20 and the work site. This is visible to the top left of the photo.

When the second 20th century attempt at building the tunnel started, it was decided that the existing work platform was insufficent. A jack-barge was moored offshore (its legs are visible top centre-left, with a red crane jib between them), and built an enclosed lagoon using Larssen piles. Initially, mine-stone from some of the local pits was brought in to lay the foundations of the railway sidings and buildings, then spoil from the excavations was brought up via the conveyor seen to the right of the top pair of gantry cranes. This loaded dump-trucks, which ran a shuttle service to build up the western edge of the site- the portion visible is about half the site.

The railway lines in the foreground, served by the front row of gantries, were standard-gauge, used to bring in the majority of the material used in the tunnel construction. The railway tracks visible to the right of this are narrow gauge; these descended via a rack-and-pinion incline (now a ventilation adit) to the tunnel worksites.

The large stacks of concrete are concrete lining segments; most were manufactured at a site on the Isle of Grain, and brought in by rail, though some concrete ones were cast on site. Specialised cast-iron segments were brought in by rail from the Black Country. Other material brought in by rail included mine-stone, Larssen piles, aggregate and cement.

Apart from the reclaimed ground, and the access tunnel through the cliff, I don't think any of the structures now remain. Part of the site now houses ventilation and cooling plant for the tunnel, but most is a nature reserve called Samphire Hoe, the name being a reference to a scene in King Lear.

Edited by Fat Controller
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1941.painting.

Titled, Guarding a Tunnel.

Artist. Eric Ravilious

 

 

post-13585-0-45141000-1484309958.jpeg

 

Today,down in the office of Samphire Hoe,with a blizzard outside,but not lying,as we are next the sea.

Shakey cliff came up in the conversation.

Steve said have you seen the picture of Shakey by Eric Ravilious,

Manchester Art Gallery, has it in a collection and did not know where the tunnel was.

Steve informed them. They we're happy.

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Today, at the office,

 

Walked the last bit.

 

31476160363_0e91ae9227_k.jpgDSC_0456 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

32286340735_1259b195ac_k.jpgDSC_0457 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

31476063973_9df07821ff_k.jpgDSC_0464 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

32166813601_102af8c038_k.jpgDSC_0466 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

31476032743_4313bdda6e_k.jpgDSC_0467 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

31444765164_1efcbf8c43_k.jpgDSC_0470 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

32166736541_a62e01026b_k.jpgDSC_0474 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

31475857303_54811c37f7_k.jpgDSC_0483 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

32136819342_4c999a29da_k.jpgDSC_0486 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

31909592740_504652281a_k.jpgDSC_0488 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

31444509764_14cf38970f_k.jpgDSC_0491 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

 

32136914442_e66e16b749_k.jpgDSC_0477 by David Todd 2012, on Flickr

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I see the march of the gabions continues.  I wonder what they meant to do - break waves before they hit the concrete wall perhaps or to stop the big rocks being thrown against the wall in storms?

I suspect it's something to do with breaking the waves and dissipating their energy, though quite how this works I couldn't say. The myriad interstices between the individual stones within each gabion would also ensure that water flows away after impact. 

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