Wednesday 30th July 2014 - And then there was Wishaw!

Jim H and a small team of volunteers continued the good work on the footbridge. Here is Jim's report:-

Bill

Another working party day at Wishaw today, although with "Reliable Roger" failing on shed and Keith having to leave at lunchtime, we were somewhat short on numbers.  

The first task of the day was to inspect the sheeting on the two staircase sections and bail out the water that had settled on top of the tarpaulins.  As usual the weight of water had opened up several gaps so we spent time hunting around for more spare timber, and then fitting this to try to prevent the same gaps appearing next time it rains.

Keith tackles the conduit while Ray concentrates on handrail brackets

Having spent the last few weeks tottering about on the staircases treading on the step edges, the light finally came on so to speak, and we recycled the plywood sheets taken from the spare span to make a safe working area.  What a difference this made to getting about!

Ray and Keith set about removing the electrical conduit and light fittings on both the staircase sections.  This should have been quite a straightforward task but working above your head and with some particularly stubborn screws, it took us to nearly lunchtime to complete.

 Peter  re-ties the tarpaulins

Over the morning tea break Peter Q and I had a session looking at the results of Peter's exercise attempting to identify a complete list of timber required for the footbridge.  It is a surprisingly large amount!

Recovery Work Continues

In the afternoon battle re-commenced in tackling the handrail removal.  We are attempting to save the handrail brackets for re-use, so great care had to be taken to get the screws out without damaging the brackets.  A very slow and labour intensive process.  Still we are getting there.  Only two more handrail sections to go.

 

 Peter gets to grips with stubborn screws

While this was going on I disappeared off to the outer yard to check how many bolts/rivets need to be removed in order to take the four hoops off the main span. The answer is 20 bolts and 12 rivets, plus the 16 bolts at high level holding the timber to these hoops.  Hopefully we can tackle this next time and then the main span will be ready for transporting to Broadway, once we have prepared the ground for it to stand on.

To sum up then a day of slow and steady progress but at least the weather was dry and the temperature better suited to the work we were doing.

Regards

Jim H.