I nipped down to see what progress was being made on the works to demolish the old Church Road Bridge earlier. The bridge is being demolished as part of the Sadlers Farm Junction Improvements project and you can read more on my blog yesterday here.
It was very cold and very wet so I give a big shout out to all the guys down there carrying out this work that is by necessity being carried out 24/7 over a weekend to minimise the time the A13 is shut to the travelling public. Its had work mad more so because of the conditions. Like I said yesterday though the rain will be keeping people off the roads and so the prdicted traffic congestion hasn’t happened based on my two visits to the site.
All the debris from the bridge deck has gone as has that from demolition of the south abutment. Some of the south abutment remains in place but I guess that is deliberate. The breakers are now working on the north abutment. I’m guessing the concrete is very hard.
The heavy rain does seem to be giving them a bit of a flooding issue with runoff collecting behind the crash blanket covering the highway. They have been able to form a channel through on the south side and do appear to be taking up the blank on the south carriageway which will ease things.
I’m guessing they will easily finish doing what they need to to the north abutment in order to get the A13 re-opened by 5am – barring unexpected eventualities. May still be worth not planning to use the A13 first thing tomorrow morning just in case 😉
As always album of photos here and a selection below.
Enjoy.
andrew kenyon photography 