Does anyone need a bridge?

[Steve Walker]

Isn't this the coolest DIY option ever?

'm just trying to see how the angle-grinder aspect fits, but I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

[Ash]

Makes you wonder how the army came across a surplus bridge in the storeroom?

[geoff]

In message , Steve Walker writes

They could do with some of them oop north - isn't there another main road bridge about to get washed away (with or without plod on it )

[Owain]

Some storeman was probably wandering down the aisles and wondered what the awfully big box was between "Bridge, Ethernet" and "Bridge, Dental, Officers"

It's fortunate it was discovered before it was loaded on to a plane and loads of squaddies in Terroristan find they're not getting their Xmas afternoon DVD, "Bridge, River Kwai, Over The"

Owain

[js.b1]

No, it was the bridge that socialism built that the people could not cross.

[geoff]

In message , Steve Walker writes

Fuckit

I blame you for this

The bridge of my glasses has just snapped

bugger !

[Steve Walker]

I'm amazed that they didn't look closer at these bridges before - it's not like flooding has never happened here before ... my sister's house in Cockermouth was flooded a few years ago and they were worried about the bridges then. Luckily for her, she's moved away since and lives half-way up a large hill!

SteveW

[Tony Bryer]

Not just oop north, near my old home too ...

"Commuters face travel chaos over Christmas after a railway bridge collapsed into a river during heavy rainfall.

A train driver raised the alarm at around midnight on Saturday after crossing the 100-year-old bridge over the River Crane, in Feltham."

[Dave Liquorice]

Can't see why the army can't be called in and Bailey type bridge installed.

After all they installed a girder bridge when the Eden washed away the sandstone bridge at Langwathby in 1968. That Bailey type bridge is still there and is probably the oldest "temporary" bridge in the country.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Liquorice" saying something like:

I've seen a few Bailey bridges dotted around the UK, and I distinctly recall the first one I encountered in 1962ish was on a road just south of Ayr. It was still there a few years ago, surprising me somewhat as I had expected it to be gone by then.

[The Natural Philosopher]

How can you look at the foundations?

They are underground and under water.

That's what's gone. The river has undermined them.

Worst recorded rainfall ever apparently.

[John]

Our country seems to rely on structures build by the Victorians - and earlier. We don't even seem to be able to maintain such structures properly. Near me are bridges over a railway which in my childhood were regularly painted - now they are rusting.

River beds need to be dredged under bridges to ensure that a rush of water can be allowed through without backing up. Also - debris needs clearing away from river banks before it gets washed down stream to block bridges.

[robgraham]

Still there - at least there's one in that area somewhere near Drongan that I crossed earlier this year.

Rob

[Tim W]

John wibbled on Monday 23 November 2009 09:09

Tell me about it. down here in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, there have been two major floods in 2000.

So the Environment Agency installed bunds and movable flood gates at enormous cost.

At the same time, they also dredged all the many streams and ditches in the area, something that had not been happening regularly.

Oddly enough, they've never had to use the flood gates and I've not yet this year, despite serious rain, seen any sign of excessive water either on the fields beyond the bunds or in the streams.

No-one is complaining about having a belt and braces system, but some of us do wonder if the EA had done their job (dredging and clearing) each year, then the floods of 2000 may never have happened and they might have saved a few million on fancy gates.

They seem to take their duty seriously now - EA Landrovers were about last Friday with blokes clearing the banks of weeds and crap :)

[Piers Finlayson]

I'm planning on putting a bridge across a stream on my land. I had intended to put a couple of timber sleepers down, but I hadn't anticipated the need for a tank crossing.

[Owain]

Tank might be over-ambitious, but why not size it to carry at least a bobcat sort of thing?

Owain

[gazz]

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote

Hold your breath, stick you head under the water and look, simples.

[gazz]

"Piers Finlayson" wrote

you never know, better to have a bridge that can handle a tank, than one that can't the day you decide to buy a tank... for some reason :)

bit like germany, all road bridges have a weight limit sign on them, top one shows trucks and their weight limit, and the lower sign shows tanks, and if it's for single way crossing or both ways, i never checked if the single way crossing weight limits all point east tho :D

[Dave Liquorice]

bridge

Ah but was it purposely put there as a permenant bridge or put there as a short term, emergancy, measure when the orginal bridge collapsed/was washed away?

[dennis]

Take them off before you put your head up your arse.

Correct.