Where was Red Squirrel 21/07/2020

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

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.

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...

[martyjon]

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.

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

[stuving]

Here's the replacement, awaiting its moment:

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.

[eightonedee]

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!

[stuving]

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).

[ellendune]

Reinforced concrete is surprisingly fragile when lifted, dragged, trundled, or dropped - in fact anything other than left where it was built.

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. 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.

[Red Squirrel]

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

[stuving]

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^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) 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 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, 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 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 - 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?