Tag: project

#365daysofbiking The Crossing:

December 13th – A bright, glass hard, cold day saw me in Telford mid-morning, and in the week or two I haven’t been here, the new footbridge has opened.

Man, is it a curate’s egg.

First thing is, someone clearly booked the possessions and plant to remove the old bridge for a fixed date, and the new one had to open. Regardless. So it’s not in even a nearly finished state. Brick cladding is still being laid. The access ramp to the cycleway on the Priorslee side is still being built. Bits of it haven’t been surfaced properly or at all. Workmen still mingle with commuters. It’s a bloody mess if I’m honest.

The bridge itself is an interesting, open construction that’s light and airy. It makes the journey between platforms one hell of a lot shorter. The lifts are welcome. It feels stable and the thing seems to be a nice, rigid design.

But there’s a huge, massive, glaring issue.

There is no ramp access to the Shrewsbury side of the station. So wheelies and those not able to use steps are confined to the lift. If that isn’t working, someone alighting here from Brum or Wolves will be stranded on a platform next to a 6 lane road with no means to cross it. There is no simple way around.

I can’t overstate how bad this is if it’s the final design.

If the bridge does not eventually provide ramp access to the Shrewsbury platform, then it will have failed in its primary objective – to make life easier for those that found the old ramp too steep. The designers will have spent 10 million quid making the use of this station for those with limited mobility much more of a gamble.

I hope I’m wrong and a ramp is sorted. If not, the council and Network Rail really need to rethink this urgently.

The bridge is nice, but too reliant on lifts, and at the moment is very much unfinished. Open too soon, and at the moment, looking critically flawed.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2BljkRc
via IFTTT

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.

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 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 8th – At Telford, the piling for the footbridge project near the station is progressing apace, and the machinery in use is fascinating. 

Holes are being bored, reinforcing assemblies being placed within and concrete pumped in. The depth of the bores is extraordinary, and an army of workers in orange wait for their moment to undertake their assigned tasks.

This is a hugely complex project which has surprised me – I can now see why it’s costing so much.

February 22nd – Passing through Telford on a flying visit in the morning, I noticed that the worksite for the new footbridge was oddly quiet. It seems test bores have been completed and are now being monitored for effects on the nearby built environment – including the railway itself.

Along the rails are mounted at intervals surveying datum targets which will be monitored – either manually, or by use of an automated theodolite – to see it recent operations are causing any movement.

A fascinating use of technology.

March  7th – I had to nip to Telford, and as I came through the station I noted that the tree clearance now seems to have ended, and construction weens to have started in earnest on the western side of the bridge span.

I was also pleased to note that the daffodils on the station ramp side that bolted wonderfully when cleared of their shady tree-cover are coming into bloom as yet untroubled by the construction machines. it’s right they should bloom unfettered for a final time, I think.

This project has caught my attention and I’ll be interested to watch it progress – not least to see how they manage to built a new access way that will so clearly interfere with the old one, and yet still maintain public access.

April 21st – I came back through Walsall Wood as I had to make a call, and noted that the new leisure centre at Oak Park was nearing completion. Due to the size and location, it’s been really hard to get decent pictures of, but it looks like it’s going to be a great place and a worthy successor to the raging centre currently here.

I note huge amounts of earth are being moved around the site at the moment to regrade an re-landscape it.

I look forward to seeing the finished project.

April 29th – Bentley Bridge near Darlaston is the scene of a huge roads project at the moment. For a week or so, huge and fascinating plant has been involved in erecting deep and sturdy H section piles along the roadside.

It’s an impressive bit of engineering with some fascinating machinery. The webs on those girders are about 50mm thick.