Repairs to Poole road bridge (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Repairs to Poole road bridge
7:00am Thursday 18th March 2010 in
POOLE’S Towngate Bridge will have to be jacked up a few millimetres to allow vital work to be carried out.
The town-centre bridge which flies over the railway line, connecting Hunger Hill with the George Roundabout, needs new bearings and shock transmission units.
These allow the deck to move as it expands and contracts with changes of temperature and absorb the forces generated by large vehicles braking.
However, they have not been replaced since the bridge was completed in the early 1970s and their condition has deteriorated.
Borough of Poole has set aside £246,000 to carry out the work, which is estimated to take eight weeks and could start at the end of May or early June.
It will require four individual road closures for the deck to be jacked up and lowered again and the council will programme these overnight between 7pm and 6am.
An inspection carried out in May 2007 revealed the bearings were showing limited signs of movement, with some having stopped moving altogether.
Supporting base plates of the bearings and anchoring bolts were severely corroded, as were the outer casings of the shock transmission units, which were in very poor condition, with significant amounts of corrosion to the main components.
“If these works are not carried out there is a risk to the ongoing performance of the structure which would then be likely to result in more costly repairs being required in the future,” said a report before the borough’s transportation advisory group.
Comments(9)
mikey2gorgeous
says...
9:05am Thu 18 Mar 10
Syd Poumen
says...
9:35am Thu 18 Mar 10
Henry Bear
says...
10:28am Thu 18 Mar 10
Does it not state the their will be individual lane closures? Aka the road will perhaps remain open?
Looks like a well planned job to me.
Paul Weaver
says...
11:34am Thu 18 Mar 10
benjamin
says...
2:06pm Thu 18 Mar 10
Syd Poumen
says...
2:49pm Thu 18 Mar 10
benjamin wrote:I just hope it does not become another 'i con it' one!
A bridge too far perhaps?
Bormuf Boy
says...
4:23pm Thu 18 Mar 10
HHHHHH!!!!!!!
X Old Bill
says...
7:45pm Thu 18 Mar 10
.
To: mikey2gorgeous
If you visit the bridge and go to the part between the railway and the exit to the car park,or the South side of the railway. Look at the supporting pillars, where they go into the ground there are metal plates, under those plates are the bearing pads on which the bridge rests. They allow the whole structure to slide to take up expansion/contractio
n of the deck.
There are also flat joints under the actual carriageway where the spans meet the fixed ramps, but you can't see them.
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BIRD’S EYE VIEW: The Towngate Bridge. Picture by Richard Crease with thanks to Bournemouth Helicopters.
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l'anglais says...
7:43am Thu 18 Mar 10