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Washout at Dawlish


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I thought I saw some mesh going down before yesterday's pour commenced. It also looks as if there is a vertical mesh at the front of the wall.

The mesh is to stop cracking caused by thermal expansion/contraction of the concrete - especially from the initial curing period.  The smaller the crack tolerance the more steel you need to put in.

 

Also concrete will set under water - that's how the Romans built their docks at Ostia.

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Latest screen pic of work in action

 

more concrete laid as near to top of pipes now

 

attachicon.gifcamputerb86.jpg

 

 

 

 

yes at times I`ve been staggered at the damage I`ve come across and thought why bother just scrap it. I have taken the note of the box number and been surprised when there it is rebuilt waiting for the next job to do, more amazing is tanks when they get dented or sucked in. which providing they are not split how they slowly pressurise them to blow them back out. In the short term and the amount of containers sat around in yards the easy quick job is to scrap them.

At least today it looks to be a relativly calm day compared to some of the breakers that we have seen over the last few weeks.

 

I hope that they are not get the level of heavy showers that we are currently getting in Plymouth.

 

Good work by CK and his steadfast crew, the work appears to be gathering pace.

 

SS

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Sorry for fact that Weds photos still haven't been uploaded, just haven't had time, other urgent stuff going on elsewhere, which I hope to report on later next week (a bit of a good news story, in fact), also had relatives visiting last night. Still haven't heard back re official reason for 'sticky up pipey things', but will get that in due course too...

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I would think some of the comments on that would be worth a thread of their own to avoid cluttering this one - right curate's egg of a film.

one thing i will say is that i would have thrown the camera crew out of the cab if i'd been the local DSM!

 

so many things wrong with their in cab conduct

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one thing i will say is that i would have thrown the camera crew out of the cab if i'd been the local DSM!

 

so many things wrong with their in cab conduct

Knowing what SWT are like, I'd be very surprised if the DSM wasn't on the other side of the bulkhead!

 

John

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new pipe and safety rail extensions. 

 

 

Which goes to show that the level is slowly but surely coming up and we are on the way to having trains around the coast once more.  Good work by all involved.

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they must be council workers, 2 to try and repair the digger and 3 to watch!

Lot of blue hats and not so many white ones? Blue ones are normally the less experienced when trackside (PTS), is it the same here or is it a construction site rather than railway at the moment?

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Lot of blue hats and not so many white ones? Blue ones are normally the less experienced when trackside (PTS), is it the same here or is it a construction site rather than railway at the moment?

Technically it should be a construction site, and as Edwin has said you don't want to go putting people through a PTS course at a time like this.

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OK folks - a spare few mins, and this time I'm going to prioritise topics other than Dawlish (including my blog), and taking time out to eat a Gert Big Pasty picked up at a farmers market in Bovey Tracy yesterday...

 

- The vertical pipes are confirmed as vertical drains.

 

- The mode of construction (for those who haven't already worked this out) is to place a row of pre-cast concrete blocks along the outer edge, right next to the metal containers.

- You then drill them horizontally and insert very long stainless steel anchor pins (these anchor the pre-cast blocks to the concrete that will be poured next)

- Next - you pour concrete - probably in a couple of stages - up to the top of the pre-cast blocks, level it off etc.

- Extend the vertical drains with further extension pieces

- Repeat the process until you've got the 'head of concrete' up to the planned level

- Deposit X hundreds of tons of new ballast on top of the fully-cured concrete

- Lay the new track that is being delivered and pre-assembed next to Marine Parade at the moment

- Rebuild the missing parapet wall in concrete to the correct level above rail level

- Face the outer wall off with granite that matches what Brunel used (our contractors are checking out local quarries at the moment)

 

And certainly not least... fix the damage in all the other locations - the amount of sheer work necessary elsewhere to allow train to start running should not be underestimated, it's not just about the main washout site.

 

And regarding the helmets, this is indeed to do with the way the site has been classified, so all is well and to be expected in that regard.

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