Tag: footbridge

August 13th – A brighter day when the morning got going and I found myself visiting Telford feeling better, even if my stomach was still uncomfortable.

The footbridge project is progressing well but there still seems to be an awful lot to do: No discernible structural assembly of the lifts yet, and the access point on the west side seems miles off completion yet, although in the way these things generally do, it’ll probably come together very quickly in the end.

Interesting to note the main span mainly constructed now, and it’ll be lifted in one piece onto the piers. I’d be interested to see if that ripples the roof skin.

At the station end – which this construction is already dwarfing – there are to large, green service cabinets in position by the steps. Perhaps it’s me, but they look really, really incongruous.

This gets more and more fascinating every time I visit.

July 26th – At Telford, the new footbridge at the station continues to take shape. Steel is being erected, steps and glazing are being added and lifts seem to be going in too. 

There are now five distinct building sites that make up this construction. Getting to the right one to start work – across a railway, a major dual carriageway and slip roads – can’t be much fun!

July 13th – In Telford for the morning, I crossed the footbridge over the motorway to Priorslee and noticed that despite the dry spell, the embankments, a real haven for local wildlife were still very green and alive with wildflowers. 

It always interests me how the motorways of the UK – undoubtedly polluting and hostile to the environment – have formed green ribbons of land that protect so much wildlife and provide an undisturbed haven.

Of course, this is one of the quieter UK motorways.

July 3rd – I had stuff to do in Telford mid-morning, and was eager to see how the footbridge project was progressing. I wasn’t disappointed.

On site, the assembled over-railway portion of the deck had been lifted into place as I suspected onto the lattice piers – which despite my scepticism last week appear to have been positioned without breaking any glass at all. Remarkable.

The crane used to lift the 96 tonne structure into place was being dismantled on site – by another crane. It was terribly meta. 

It was heaven for a machine geek like me, I was transfixed for some time.

It’s nice to see the new footbridge taking shape at last.

June 25th – Over in Telford on Monday morning, sun streamed down on construction workers and engineers preparing for the following week when a huge crane will lift the first, over-railway section of the new bridge into place from where it’s being assembled right next to the westbound platform.

Last week I couldn’t work out how they were going to lift it into place with nothing to put it on – then today I realised that as well as the deck, the piers had been assembled out of their final position too – the two lattice and glass pillar towers beyond the green crane will be bolted onto the matching concrete bases each side of the railway, and the new deck bolted to it, spanning the tracks.

What I can’t work out is why they’ve fitted the glazing before they finally lift the towers – surely moving them will fleet the structure so much the glass will break?

Perhaps it’s tougher than I think… we shall see, I guess…

May 10th – Passing on a flying visit to Telford, the new footbridge project is progressing really, really well.

Beside the westbound platform, all the piling and excavations are finished now, and construction of the bridge section to go over the railway continues, while the footings and steelwork for the pier and access ways are beginning to show the final outline now.

Next to the eastbound platform, a forest of steel girders are being piled into the ground for the pier that side.

This really is a most fascinating project.

April 17th – The Telford footbridge construction project continues, and there’s a really interesting stage started now; partially build sections of the bridge have been delivered as steelwork skeletons, namely a couple of lattice piers and the over railway deck section. What’s interesting is that they have been fixed temporarily on spare ground, and other parts are being welded and added. The assembled sections will be completed on the ground, and then lifted into place.

I’ve never seen this done before and passing through on a grey, drizzly afternoon it was certainly interesting to watch the engineers at work while I waited for the train.

This is certainly going to confuse people trying to work out the final layout…

April 6th – A frenetic, hurried visit to Telford in the afternoon showed me something about spring I forget – the optimism and resilience of nature. At the worksite of the new footbridge project, daffodils I spoke of as being lost last year under diggers and demolition have not just survived, but sprout from every patch of undisturbed ground. Bobbing cheerfully from scraped embankments, mounds of silver and defiantly decorating piles of rebar, these yellow flag bearers for better times will not be put off.

Meanwhile, steelwork is going up apace now.

Some features of spring are not just beautiful, but life-affirming.

March 26th – In Telford for a meeting, the footbridge project continues it’s bizarre stop-start behaviour, baffling to the uninitiated. Piles are bored and concreted now, sheet piling has appeared along the roadside, and a cavity there had been dug – maybe for a pier or lift-well. Steelwork has been driven into the earth and cut to varying lengths, and there a lot of noise and action. But no visible chap yet, and nothing on the Euston Way side of the station at all. 

I guess this is one of those puzzling projects that will just sudsy come together, but it’s very intriguing to watch.