surprised that only the brick facing walls are holding in the outward forces resulting from the load on the roadway. Why not tie bars and spreader plates to stop the walls being pushed outwards?
- posted
7 years ago
surprised that only the brick facing walls are holding in the outward forces resulting from the load on the roadway. Why not tie bars and spreader plates to stop the walls being pushed outwards?
There are an estimated 60-70,000 masonry and brick arch bridges in the UK, most being more than a century old. They generally survive quite well without any need to tie the spandrel walls together. The presence of ties in the blue brick arch rings suggests that this is one of the exceptions and has had problems in the past; it is mentioned in the article that the area is liable to subsidence.
Loads of guys standing underneath! I'm not sure I would.
When is the other side going to do the same thing?
This year Next year Sometime Never.
Impossible to say. Obviously the abutments had crumbled. Tree roots? Wrong sort of soil? Not enough tree roots?
They've got hard hats on :-)
Remember that the Hastings Line embankments and cuttings in the Stonegate and Mountfield areas had been happy for nearly 150 years - then a few years ago they did this:
NR reckoned that whilst there was nothing exactly wrong with how the Victorians built them, they'd used any old spoil from other cuttings whereas now we'd be a bit more careful with the type of material used.
One year of very high rainfall was the last straw.
That's quite a good reason for not having driverless trains.
As the collapse has probably reduced the pressure on the opposite side, I would say no time soon. However, as the opposite side of that arch appears to be the only bit of the bridge that does not have recessed brick decoration and it looks to be a different colour of brick, the answer might be some time ago. It seems to have been rebuilt at some time, probably that was also when the ties were put into the arch rings.
We are told that the area is liable to subsidence.
Looks like soil has been incorporated into the structure. Normally it would be filled with masonry.
It is quite usual for a Victorian bridge to contain soil. It probably came from the railway cutting. Today, the most likely options would be foamed concrete or a well-drained granular fill. The latter allows for greater movement, so would be more suitable for an area liable to subsidence.
How interesting. My initial idea was that foamed concrete would hold everything together nicely, but I can see that you might want a bit of flexibility.
In message , at 21:41:32 on Wed, 3 Aug 2016, GB remarked:
Concrete has no strength in tension (hence the concept of reinforced concrete), but it would stop things moving around if that was using strength in compression.
In message , at 18:18:33 on Wed, 3 Aug 2016, Nightjar remarked:
It might have been due to doubling the track there from two to four lines.
That was my first thought, but, if you look carefully at the remains of the collapsed wall, at the top, near the centre, you can see the same recessed decoration as on the other arch. That suggests that the plain side is a later rebuild, rather than due to an extension of the bridge.
You might find this document of interest. It deals with how brick arch bridges are built today:
It's a truly hopeless company that suggests heating as a solution to bridge collapse. Thank you to all spammers for letting us know who to avoid.
NT
Nice link. I was in a Victorian brewery cellar the other day, with a stone arched roof which feels just about as flat as Maidenhead. Next time I am there I will measure the span to height ratio.
"Our teams have been working on site since the early hours to make the bridge area safe and restore train services following the partial collapse," he added.
"A full investigation will take place into the cause of the collapse, but our priority is to return rail services as soon as possible."
So as long as they can make a profit while they discuss the engineering, things can go back to normal?
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