Lowering the MX3D bridge

Now that the weekend has passed and the football is over for another year or so (for me, anyway, as I only pay attention to major tournaments), I thought I’d share some of the work that was done last week on the MX3D bridge, and what’s planned for this coming week.

From along the bank

The major work done on Friday was to raise the bridge (allowing access to the current foundations) and to start the job of lowering it by around 15cm. Sometimes you have to go up to go down.

Lifting the bridge

I was impressed by the fact the bridge could be raised – one end at a time, of course – by a couple of hand winches. (Apologies for mangling the correct name for these – I’m very much a software guy, remember.) The bridge weighs about 6 tons, so this probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who actually knows anything about engineering.

From the other side

Some pieces of H-beam were then inserted to take the load. This is the view at the other end of the bridge:

The other end of the bridge

The workers pulled out various tools to chip away at the concrete foundation…

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