Granitechops

Wed 14 Jan looks like builders are carrying stuff out off the house that was worse damaged in the storms two skips on road from NWR webcam http://www.networkrail.co.uk/timetables-and-travel/storm-damage/dawlish/

Tues 13th Jan 2015 3.35 pm Storm front forecast for this evening both jacking barges elevated gangway stowed temporary causeway partly leveled by the waves which was to be expected

I spoke to an Amco operative on Thursday 8th, He was not at all impressed by the 'new' jacking barge having not been moved from Teignmouth docks to Dawlish on the favourable tides on wednesday due to the 'swell' running ( he had been previously involved in vessel movements to the Scilly Isles Atlantic Rollers etc, 60 ft waves off Lands End etc) I couldn't possibly comment, although I have seen Sennen Cove disappear under 100 ft of sea spray He did say that about 100 'L' shaped precast units are stacked on Teignmouth Docks, although from Poly Steps only 5 are visible, ready for shipping as soon as the barge does get moved The bottom walkway has had the locating/anchor bolts fixed in place ready to receive them and it looks like they are going to run concrete across the beach from Red Rock again as well as from the main road above the site there has been a pinch point off Rockstone bridge, where the beach is lower & this hinders access to the site, so Thursday they were constructing what looks to be a causeway to offset this building a loose barrier out of old rock & broken concrete Terex dumper, having been loaded up by the Jacking barge, turning ready to reverse down to tip backing down under Rockstone bridge Sorry I have not been about a lot this week my wife has had a major spine surgery postponed 3 times Oct, Nov, then December again but she eventually had it this last Thurs ( 5-6 hours) And now is recovering very well, the surgeon is pleased, And I am WELL pleased & relieved but with Hospital visiting twice daily time is limited hopefully she will be home either tomorrow Sunday or maybe Monday, depending on the X rays tomorrow

I am assuming this is what was Shell Cove House we once, 40 years back, stayed there in a lodge, while we were between homes beautiful place, would be a magnet to prospective, unsuspecting customers has its own foot path to a 'private' beach

I think you'll find the crop shot at the top is of the Cornish side, as you can see the new road bridge to the left of the rail bridge, It is much clearer when you look at heeds original shot on page 162 of this thread. Actually, my bad sentence structure, what I meant was that I did not know which end the photo was with the guy getting through the door EDIT;- looking more closely it is possible that the second photo (guy in door) is of the Devon end when you enlarge Heeds photo you can see that there is a second closed door just under the "N" of 'BRUNEL' but just beyond the guy coming through the door, the second door ( only just visible by its hinge straps) is to the left of the "N", so must be the Devon end

Remember this crop I took off Heeds (23 Aug) photo on here? Well I had always thought that the main span tubes were of cast iron, Mentioned this to a friend of mine who has recently been working on the Royal Albert Bridge Project & he sent me these photos of the inside, it is constructed from riveted steel wrought iron plates (Edit;- see Martins Post below) by the look of it I dont know wether this is the Devon or the Cornish end of the bridge but that little access door is not very big!! Inspection party on tour You can just see a safety cable running down the middle although these photos look like they were taken at the top of the span they curve quite steeply at the ends & possibly damp/condensation could cause difficult conditions underfoot EDIT;- and the gloves they are wearing, not for the cold ( June?) but if that steel cable should corrode steed splinters do cause nasty injuries to bare hands slid along them, how do i know? well I used to drive a crane & one maintenance job was to apply grease to the wire cables done slowly with a thick cloth, when a snag was detected, the wire was replaced you only once did it with your bare hands!! cable seen more clearly here Network Rail personell inspecting? back middle of 2014??? EDIT;- yes on the occassion of current Network Rail Chief Executive Mark Carne's visit 6 months ago NOTE;- Bridge photos in this post are attributed to Taziker Industrial Ltd South West Office Still off Topic Although the Tamar bridge did have a severe reduction in traffic during the Dawlish Washout!!

Crane cant see any identity marks on crane access of visibility is limited at Polly steps Teignmouth ( unless in a boat) but looks from Weldex website to be a 100 tonnes Liebherr LTR 1100 Telescopic Crawler by comparing my photo with their PDF EDIT;- sorry try to do proper link to weldex page go "Equipement" & then its 6th pdf from the bottom you will have to download http://www.weldex.co.uk/equipment may see better when its on site interestingly the pdf shows the method of preparing crane for road transportation And check out this baby same page download 4th from bottom pdf - Scheuerle InterCombi 100 tonnes Liebherr LTR 1100 Telescopic Crawler would have loved to pilot that rig ( slow on the roundabouts please)

Monday 5th January 2015 First work day after the winter solstice holidays 11.37 am digger at work on the beach jacking barge still up & no gang way in use 3.10 pm Deck lowered, gangway lowered Teignmouth docks 1.02 pm smaller Jacking barge now got hydraulic crane on deck the first 5 precast "L" units ( the only ones seen) are still on the dockside no load visible on 'Bobs box' next to Boojum Bay But there is activity on main Exeter rd. opposite the RC church bollards, boards to lay on the road, pallets of concrete pumping pipes etc, etc so at a guess shortly we will see 2nd barge moved, & concrete pipe line laid watch this space I spoke to the Teignmouth Harbour Master earlier when asked about date for Jacking barge to leave the Docks the reply was, in the next week, depending on tides weather, etc. EDIT;- just got the 2015 tides table the highest tides were today Tues at 0709 at 4.0 mtr tomorrow 0742 again 4.0 mtr wednesday they start dropping & dont get up to 4.0 mtr again until 20th Jan But I do not know what depth of water is required to safely place the small jacking barge in place PROBABLY draws about 1.5 meters and I understand they need to get this barge as close in as possible makes sense with a smaller crane anyone know its lifting capacity?

Due to an "incident" ion Dawlish earlier trains were delayed between Dawlish & Exeter but they are running now according to the NWR webcam

No work flood lights just one cabin safety light on residents will be pleased

Could be they have finished for the hols Barge deck drawn well up gang way stowed no storm forecast or deck may need to be lifted higher

Crane & digger still at work on the lower seawall

No it isn't Quite a bit smaller its a Red 7 Marine Jacking barge, but cant see any name or model identity poor lighting conditions this morning looks like it has thinner jacking legs than Seariser 4 thats already off Dawlish and they are about 27 mt long interesting quote from Red 7 Marine web site http://www.red7marine.co.uk/news/2013/red7marine-invests-in-new-jack-up-barge-haven-seariser-3/ About Haven Seariser 3 " "In terms of the technical details, the jack up barge is of a modular design with overall dimensions of 29.3m x 17m x 2.44m. The platform is built out of 15 units, 4 jacking systems and 4 connectable spud legs. The vessel has a maximum deck load capacity of 250 tonnes and a point load capacity of 5 tonnes per square metre. Individual spud legs with a total of 36 metres in length, made up of three jointed lengths of 12 metres. The combined features of sectioned spud legs and the individual modular units, based on standard ISO containers, provides customers with tangible benefit of assisting Red7Marine in keeping mobilisation costs to a minimum. " " Anyway, this is what I saw in Teignmouth docks this am still got the lifting/ guiding strops on top of the legs residents said it appeared some time last friday & obviously it did not take that long to assemble if id did come by road meanwhile back in Dawlish with favorable tides, concrete was being transferred by dumper along the beach to fill in the space vacated by the removed container Notice that there is very little plant left on the upper walkway nearest the camera now was informed that work will cease tomorrow for the holiday I did notice a large lorry load of serious scaffold parked in Exeter road yesterday looks like the concrete pumping might NOT be pumped down Riviera Terrace Access road but closer to Dawlish Station over a private property? or maybe a strip of Railway land? anyway it was right opposite the Roman Catholic Church

Wow looks like a Mill Pond from NWR webcam

Doubt it, as that was used only when track was not in use would probably not be allowed unless there was possesion but if there is a culvert no need for extra expense of an arial boom pumper Up on Exeter road in a cordoned off part of one carriageway the concrete could be fed into a hopper from mixer lorries, that feeds a non red spider concrete pumper into pipes down the access road & under the rails through a culvert so concrete could be pumped continuously even when trains were running I should think that once the precast units are in place, they would want to fill it in as quickly as possible for maximum strength probably be quicker, as then gravity would enhance the pumping effort the red spider would have to expend a lot more energy (& time? slower?) to pump the concrete vertically uneccessarily

Was told recently by an orange clad operative ( did not see the writing on the back of his suit) that when the precast units are in place & fixed then concrete will be pumped down from Exeter road as previously, down Riviera Terrace and then under the railway by culvert to infill as needed, his words " they will be pumping night & day" If that is the case that would mean traffic lights on Exeter road as previously to provide an off loading pumping area as when the washout site was filled in watch that space!!

well, thats 8 to 10 days work of even with reading the assembly instructions, if its as big as the present one

For a day or two there has been what looks like a marker buoy out to sea to the left of the Jacking barge pic from NWR webcam anyone ideas as to its specific role?

In the summer I was usually wearing a bright emerald green fleece but now its colder I have to wear a drab olive parka with hood not on a scooter at present but on an electric wheelchair What prime mover do you pilot?

Ok then, back to the seawall where well "trained" men have not been "derailed" from doing a good job!! Seawall between Dawlish Station Viaduct & Boat Cove & the tunnels crew busy rejointing the vertical face of the walkway I say rejointing, as opposed to repointing as they appear to be cleaning out the joints to at least 9" deep using a wooden batten to ram the mortar in well deep

gives a toot then when you see me in my wheelchair along Dawlish or Dawlish Warren sea wall taking pictures.

Sun noon 14 th Dec. even though no concrete may be brought in over the beach for now work goes on big gap on low walkway where the containers were not long been lifted by the look of it, it has been dropped onto the barge deck you can just see the chains diagonally behind the two portaloos in this close up you can see the less than elegant first repairs to the washout (lower) well it was emergency & it was Stormy at the time!! Also in that last pic you can see the steel reinforcing sticking up out of the new concrete foundation pad along the back wall ( left hand end nearest camera) you can also see the step down to where the container has just been lifted where there is no new foundation yet that will probably be on the agenda for this week putting up the shuttering for that section to be infilled when the tides are right next weekend looks like just 5 or 6 containers left on the wall the way that container has lifted without buckling suggests that they opened the end doors & unloaded it first and it had suficent structural integrity to be craned in one piece Do you remember this? 10th Feb 2014, before the second storm IIRC this is where the first concrete was poured in probably some of it spilled over the edge of the original wall( what was left of it) and set down behind the containers taken from NWR webcam http://www.networkrail.co.uk/timetables-and-travel/storm-damage/dawlish/

wouldnt be the first time, seen artics having to reverse out into main traffic, from Dawlish town Station car park & be redirected to Dawlish Warren compound more than once I think some drivers dont read their documents properly (said he as an ex lorry driver) I remember hearing tell of a driver arriving in St ives after going through Penzance and finding he should have been in St Ives Cambridgeshire dont know what he told his boss!!

Sat 13 Dec 9.45 pm some work still goes on from NWR Webcam

I was told by the people in the Redrock Cafe that 2 tugs moved it about 10 am this morning they apparently live down near there