Trustworthy, administrator
6,661
edits
Changes
m
Bridge 19 repairs, drainage works to slip
[[File: Bridge_19_20150607.jpg |thumb|300px|right| Bridge 19]]
Bridge 19 is an [[List_of_infrastructure#Types_of_bridge_and_crossing | accommodation underbridge]] allowing access from Severn Lodge Farm to the south end of a large field next to the River Severn. A public footpath also runs under the bridge via a stile. The photograph shows the view from the Severn Lodge side looking East, with the River Severn seen beneath the bridge and Bromley Farm on the opposite hilltop. [[Accommodation bridge north of milepost 142|Bridge 20]] allows access to the same field.
In the Autumn of 2017 the opportunity was taken to make repairs to Bridge 19 while contractors were on site at this remote location for the landslip repair (see below). Repairs took the form of coping stone replacement, where needed, and repointing.
==County Boundary==
</gallery>
==County Boundary Sliplandslip==
In [[Severn Valley Railway Timeline 2010-2019#2017|June 2017]] the SVR announced problems with an embankment slippage immediately north of Bridge 19, evidence of which had first been detected in 2016 as a series of track "twist" faults.
<gallery>
</gallery>
The stabilisation scheme principally involves 'soil nailing', a process used successfully elsewhere along the line after the [[2007 Storm Damage|storm damage of 2007]]. Steel rods are driven or bored through the slip into the solid bedrock beneath and secured in place with a concrete grout.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Sowden (2012)]] p. 12.</ref> The photograph below shows this work in progress in July 2017. Around 500 of these 'nails' will be required, as well as significant improvements to drainage in the area.<ref name = SVRLive/>This includes the installation of a network of “counterfort” drains below the sheet piling. It is fairly certain that there exists a spring in the locality as the ground in some areas of the slip remained boggy for the duration of the repair, even during dry spells. The drainage network will draw off the water in the embankment and discharge in the Severn. This, combined with the other trackside drainage that has been put in, should improve matters greatly. Remedial works to the track bed itself will involve four track panels lifted over the worst affected part of the slip. Around 800 tonnes of mostly ash will be removed and replaced with fresh imported stone infill reinforced with plastic “geomesh” grid.
<gallery>
File:Soil_nailing_20170726.jpg|Soil nailing in progress, July 2017.
