Great Western Coffee Shop

Red Squirrel and daughter have been out and about on their bicycles quite a lot of late. Where did their wanderings take them the other day?

(https://fosbr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/wwrs20200721.jpg)

Bannerman Road buy any chance ?..

A good guess, but no.

A curious road, Bannerman - there's a chunk of it that's 'missing', having been dug up and replaced by a school. However the Bannerman Road bridge is richly decorated with street art; where we were, on the other hand, no-one has been able to spray-paint until quite recently without risking being flattened by a (single-decker) bus... you were on the right lines though!

Ah so I've got it now so will leave for others to have a go.

Okay, I'm guessing the bridge/tunnel may be railway related and I'm wondering if a line formerly went through it or over it. If at all.

A busy main line passes overhead.

It may help a little if I tell you that the blue markings are not graffiti.

Mina Road at a guess.

Looks like someone had a very full bladder!

No, not Mina Road, but as with Western Pathfinder you are on the right track - and heading the right way too from his suggestion. Note that there is no pavement visible; the trench may give a false impression. This is a bridge, not a tunnel.


Most of the trains passing overhead have retention tanks these days!

I beg your pardon; i have allowed myself to become confused. Mina Road is not on the right track. Sorry to mislead. Bannerman Road, however, is.

Well, that reduces the possibilities to a distinctly finite number. I reckon it's the cycle path between Station Road and Station Lane, safely hidden from Google Earth's prying cameras. The station in question was Ashley Hill (or Ashleyhill), and the cycle route is now called Concorde Way. It's rather sad it wasn't Boiling Wells Lane, just because it's such a very good name - but it is very close to Boiling Wells itself (themselves?).

I'm delighted that this is proving such a resilient challenge! Not Boiling Wells, and not the cycle route under Ashleyhill, Ashley Hill or indeed Ashley Down as we will hopefully get used to calling it one day. Keep heading north!

Oh, and it is on Google Streetview by the way!

Gyspy Patch Lane - so it's still there, if not for long.

That's the one!

Here's the replacement, awaiting its moment:

(https://fosbr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/gipsy_patch_new-_bridge_20200720.jpg)

Not a great photo, but it was getting late...

Got my road mixed up should have posted Glenfrome Road but then it was wrong. Should have realised it was Gypsy Patch Lane having passed under that bridge having been employed at Rolls Royce for 37 years.

I recommend going and having a look while you still can. It is weird without the traffic; somehow it seems much narrower and smaller than I remember it. And so quiet!

I too was at Rolls, though I only did 20 years. I seem to remember that I may have occasionally passed under this bridge heading for a lunchtime session at No.6 Shop, or 'Stokers' as they call it these days...

In my days at RR no 6 shop was called The Magpies

I shall be interested to see how they shift that thing. Reinforced concrete is surprisingly fragile when lifted, dragged, trundled, or dropped - in fact anything other than left where it was built.

Oh dear - I won't linger under the new Caversham Road overbridge in Reading then, as that was trundled!

Not a problem, for at least two reasons. That span was steel, a much tougher and more forgiving material. And the damage concrete is liable to is visible as cracking, at least in something with a simple shape. So if it looks OK when it's in place, it'll be fine (until the steel rusts internally).

Not always. If you know what you are doing you can make a hinge out of reinforced concrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_hinge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_hinge). Invented by a Frenchman called Eugène Freyssinet. I worked on a bridge design once where the concrete arch units incorporated Freyssinet hinges to allow for mining subsidence without cracking.

I'm happy to take it on trust that these bridge engineers know what they are doing!

The Gipsy Patch Lane bridge is a minnow compared with this (steel!) one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDrj1n2dzDM

SNCF are very keen on this technique - called ripage, literally sliding but used for wheeled carriers too. If you put ripage pont sncf video into Google you get (https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=ripage+pont+sncf+video) time-lapse videos of loads of different ways to do this, some of them baffling. For example:

This is the one I was familiar with (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwikoYDryOXqAhUkrXEKHd7oCqYQtwIwCXoECAkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F74293430&usg=AOvVaw282YqYFXj1DdfnTpxO_i4r), where the whole bridge including a base slab is jacked or winched along a kind of track on a full-depth foundation. The problem with this is the short time for making that foundation and having it gain enough strength.

This one seems (it's not a good view) to avoid that (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwikoYDryOXqAhUkrXEKHd7oCqYQtwIwAnoECAUQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DwTW4bw_GKjU&usg=AOvVaw0y5WrPbuaeUw0XTDfQVsFx) by being pushed off a raft and just shoving its way into the soil. It's also not obvious where the traction force is applied. Very sneaky.

This one is the Ikea method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2-S_0y10cs) - not quite flat-pack, but close. Note how the pieces are lifted, avoiding any stress in the opposite direction to what it will be once in place.

I assume the one at Gypsy Patch Lane will have to go by wheelbarrow, given where it is. If so, supporting it well enough will be a challenge. Maybe something like this? (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwikoYDryOXqAhUkrXEKHd7oCqYQtwIwB3oECAoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DM7WSIWoXbjc&usg=AOvVaw3ql3FWZ02pazTKYuLRZ4bU)