Continuing saga of Torbay railway bridge

[rab]

Network Fail strike agsin:

 

https://flipboard.com/topic/transportationuk/anger-over-roadwork-delays-after-wrong-crane-delivered/a-8NqxCoEGTIS9LN-yDI4SWQ%3Aa%3A2749090608-a4711407c5%2Fdevonlive.com

Edited May 7, 2022 by rab

[Wheatley]

And yet the reply from Network Rail to Devon Live says the delay is down to BT cables not being where they were expected to be, no mention of cranes. I don't imagine just chopping through them to get the job done and leaving it for BT to sort out later is an option. 

 

Network Rail fail, local councillor paraphrasing/misunderstanding/misreporting fail or standard crap local newspaper reporting fail ?

[mdvle]

2 hours ago, rab said:

Network Fail strike agsin:

 

I think you owe Network Rail, and all of its current and former employees who frequent this forum, an apology.

 

If you had cared to both read the full article and not simply some quotes from an MP (likely with an agenda) and done even a very small amount of research you would have discovered it has nothing to do with Network Rail - thus you have unfairly blamed the wrong party.

 

The first reason you are wrong is because it isn't Network Rail doing the work - as it common the work has been contracted out to the private sector so if the crane comment is indeed correct then the blame for that goes to the contractor -  Dyer & Butler.

 

The second reason is because (as noted by Wheatley) the delay is down to the location of the BT cables being a problem for the building of the new bridge.

 

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/torbay-road-bridge-replacement-work-extended-until-may/

 

 

[rab]

9 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

I think you owe Network Rail, and all of its current and former employees who frequent this forum, an apology.

 

If you had cared to both read the full article and not simply some quotes from an MP (likely with an agenda) and done even a very small amount of research you would have discovered it has nothing to do with Network Rail - thus you have unfairly blamed the wrong party.

 

The first reason you are wrong is because it isn't Network Rail doing the work - as it common the work has been contracted out to the private sector so if the crane comment is indeed correct then the blame for that goes to the contractor -  Dyer & Butler.

 

The second reason is because (as noted by Wheatley) the delay is down to the location of the BT cables being a problem for the building of the new bridge.

 

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/torbay-road-bridge-replacement-work-extended-until-may/

 

 

 

My apologies, that was not the link I intended posting.

 

I am aware that Network Rail is not the main contractor, and that whoever is,

seems to have been less than thorough in their pre-planning.

 

I would also add that the post was intended partly tongue in cheek,

but, not for the first time, my attempt at humour seems to have got me in trouble.

 

This is the link I intended posting:

 

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/horror-over-chaotic-roadwork-delays-6878554

 

Para 4 states'

Mr Foster's spokesman Nicholas Gray said: "Kevin spoke to Network Rail’s Programme Manager last night - the senior executive in the company at HQ with overall responsibility for this project. The reason given for the latest delay to 23 May 2022 is that Network Rail do not have the correct cranes on site for the task - which maybe suggests that planning could have been better.

Edited April 4, 2022 by rab

[rab]

45 minutes ago, rab said:

Deleted

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by rab

[Michael Hodgson]

3 hours ago, rab said:

Deleted

 

President Nixon said it first!

[rab]

Having upset one or two by (supposedly) wrongly apportioning the blame for the last delay, I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions this time :)

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0VnDcExNAEjjkwLpjzd7eDwZKVePM5SdabNCD1k4JtN2BQ6H1NA5PPQRPpRYsE7kNl&id=103697501192745

 

Perhaps they could set up a car replacement rail service between Torquay and Paignton

[Oldddudders]

A heady mixture of Devon Live and Kevin Foster is not to be taken without a large pinch of salt. Kevin is the sort of MP that the Guardian's late political sketchwriter Simon Hoggart described as a 'lickspitttle'. Whatever new revelations come to light, he will not be contacting the 1922 Committee! In the years before he was elected to represent Torbay he was largely unemployed, it seems. Sherry directed him in a Murder Mystery play in those days, and only yesterday stood next to him while trees were planted in the park opposite her flat. He is a most unimpressive soul, and recent tv footage of him speaking at the Despatch Box did nothing to dispel that view. He does get personally involved in constituency matters, as that last sentence implies, sending out a weekly newsletter, and while that is prepared by an aide, you'd be amazed at the efforts needed to correct errors. So a statement from Foster Towers, interpreted by a dubious virtual local rag, has a high chance of inaccuracy. 

[Wheatley]

There's also still no mention of cranes, wrong or otherwise, in the Network Rail statement. 

 

Something has clearly gone wrong somewhere but there's insufficient detail in either the NWR statement of the MP's interpretation of it to suggest what.

Edited May 7, 2022 by Wheatley

[KeithMacdonald]

46 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

So a statement from Foster Towers, interpreted by a dubious virtual local rag, has a high chance of inaccuracy

 

Faulty Towers?

[Oldddudders]

Oddly, that structure was only a couple of hundred yards from the church Kevin Foster attends on Sundays!

[08221]

1 hour ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Faulty Towers?

Sorry for the off topic post!

 

Would that be this Fawlty Towers - now Sachs Lodge where my dad lives and I'm visiting for the weekend!

 

[08221]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Oddly, that structure was only a couple of hundred yards from the church Kevin Foster attends on Sundays!

 

Could that be St Matthias in Wellswod, same church my dad has started attending following a move from Buckinghamshire last year.

[rab]

2 hours ago, Wheatley said:

There's also still no mention of cranes, wrong or otherwise, in the Network Rail statement. 

 

Something has clearly gone wrong somewhere but there's insufficient detail in either the NWR statement of the MP's interpretation of it to suggest what.

Title amended to remove reference to cranes (and snow, and leaves). :)

[Mike_Walker]

12 hours ago, 08221 said:

Sorry for the off topic post!

 

Would that be this Fawlty Towers - now Sachs Lodge where my dad lives and I'm visiting for the weekend!

 

Strangely the building used for the exterior of Fawlty Towers was actually in Cores End between Bourne End and Wooburn Green which caused much mirth locally when the old lady said she couldn't see the sea!  It subsequently became a nightclub and was then destroyed by fire.  A small housing development now occupies the site.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Mike_Walker

[Oldddudders]

36 minutes ago, 08221 said:

 

Could that be St Matthias in Wellswod, same church my dad has started attending following a move from Buckinghamshire last year.

Sherry used to attend, as does her now-ex. When he heard Sherry was getting a divorce - to marry me, silly girl! - the new-ish vicar said it would no longer be appropriate for Sherry to be Chair of the church Pre-School (she is a retired teacher) nor undertake certain other duties. But once she was remarried it would all be just fine again. There's a Christian attitude! Not least because how many kids in Pre-School have a two-parent family home? She hasn't been back. 

[Wickham Green too]

On 07/05/2022 at 20:14, 08221 said:

.... Fawlty Towers - now Sachs Lodge .....

Presumably re-named in recognition of the late "Manuel" ??!?

[The Stationmaster]

I'm a tad surprised - only in some ways, as he does seem rather dumb - that the MP appears to have no concerns about rail users whose journeys have been altered because of the continuing bridgeworks.  Clearly there has been a major problem - or rather several of them - with the contract  - while what has so far been installed seems very much at odds with the way road overbridge spans are usually replaced nowadays?  But maybe that is a consequence of the site problems with much lighter components having to be used thus requiring more work once they are in place rather than using pre-cast units?

 

What is rather worrying is that nobody seems to be able to offer a clear explanation of what has gone on to cause the delays.  Or maybe what has been stated is beyond the understanding of the local media, and the MP,  who have in turn reduced published information to their own language and level leading to even more confusion?

[Wheatley]

There may well also be an unholy row/discussion about variations to contract going on between Network Rail and its contractor, limiting what can be said in public. 

 

[Oldddudders]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

I'm a tad surprised - only in some ways, as he does seem rather dumb - that the MP appears to have no concerns about rail users whose journeys have been altered because of the continuing bridgeworks.  

Actually Mike, I'm not sure rail has been affected, at least in recent weeks. Maybe there were bus substitutions initially - I don't know - but when I last arrived from France in early March trains to Paignton were running, and they are today, according to RTT. I will probably travel to Torre on Wednesday, so will find out. A bus from Newton Abbot calling all stations to Paignton would take quite some time, even using the South Devon Highway rather than via Kingskerswell, and I suspect the TOCs drove a hard bargain w NR to devise a method of working that avoided that to any extent. In addition, Stagecoach, the local bus operator, have been having planned cancellations and reductions of service due to a bus drivers shortage (HGV effect, the LA is also struggling) so would have had no chance to provide a replacement service of any sort. 

[black and decker boy]

On 07/05/2022 at 13:39, rab said:

Having upset one or two by (supposedly) wrongly apportioning the blame for the last delay, I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions this time :)

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0VnDcExNAEjjkwLpjzd7eDwZKVePM5SdabNCD1k4JtN2BQ6H1NA5PPQRPpRYsE7kNl&id=103697501192745

 

Perhaps they could set up a car replacement rail service between Torquay and Paignton

If that photo is from this week then they haven’t got a hope in hells chance of having it open to traffic by 23rd May.

 

there is a good couple of months work needed to turn that back into a fully trafficable road

[Oldddudders]

I wanted to go to Paignton Model Shop (recommended!) yesterday, so braved the 22 bus from Babbacombe, with all the thrills of the diversion. It took ages. The diversion is necessarily along winding mature roads in a smart housing area, with ups and downs as well as blind bends. We crept and crawled, and eventually the problem became obvious - the diversion at the Paignton end starts very close to the bridge. The short stub of road to the bridge is full of machinery - and more (a site generator, I think) was being unloaded from a large truck, which was partly blocking the diversion. So we had single line traffic with blokes in hi-vis controlling it. 

 

In other news, Kevin Foster's missus, a Torbay Councillor, has been in hot water. We all recall the marvellous Jackie Weaver last year, a council officer who put the elected reps in their place on a Zoom meeting, well Mrs Foster (she is rather older than him, and they only married a few years ago) did the opposite, riding roughshod over the Clerk to the Council at a meeting last year, and the poor lady left the meeting in distress. The fact that this was on a recorded Zoom has enabled a full analysis of who said what and to whom, and Hazel Foster will now have to undergo some sort of training as well as make a full apology for bullying. Last week's local elections did not include Torbay, sadly....

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-61412181

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Oldddudders

[rab]

On 09/05/2022 at 22:53, black and decker boy said:

If that photo is from this week then they haven’t got a hope in hells chance of having it open to traffic by 23rd May.

 

there is a good couple of months work needed to turn that back into a fully trafficable road

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/seafront-torquay-bridge-is-reopening-7108679?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

[black and decker boy]

1 hour ago, rab said:

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/seafront-torquay-bridge-is-reopening-7108679?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

Fair play then 👍

[The Stationmaster]

The railings - or whatever they are - look bit on the low side.   Or is there more to be done to them?