Nuneham Viaduct shut - Didcot- Oxford

[zwk500]

Well, they (the great un-known "They") know what they've done and what they're gonna do, don't they?
'They' could post an explanation on here, then we wouldn't be guessing all the time. That'd be nice, but I suppose it would invite amateur criticism before the event which'd be a nuisance to 'them' I guess.

I'm sure in due course NR will release an explanatory video covering everything.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I'm sure in due course NR will release an explanatory video covering everything.

And an article in New Civil Engineer and possibly the PWI journal too.

 

[AndyPJG]

My experience of piling was different. The steel tubes, about 400mm diam, had a 'plug' of gravel dropped into them, coming to rest on a slightly coned steel lid, or hat, or foot, or base - it'll have a name, no doubt. Then each pile was craned to the vertical and suspended over the disignated spot, and a big weight dropped down the bore onto the gravel cushion at the bottom. Each drop pulled the tube down into the ground - 200mm per drop at first, gradually reducing drop by drop. The engineer in charge stopped the operation when sucessive drops yielded lesss than a pre-determined amount - about 5mm - that sort of thing. They were then burned off at the appropriate height, a pre-formed re-inforcement 'cage' slid down the bore, then filled with concrete. He had a vibrator attached to the reinforcement cage which ensured the penetration of the mix to the very bottom - where the gravel plug was. The builder then constructed formwork for the re-inforced concrete foundation beams which spanned pile-to-pile, so both the steel tube and it's concrete core both remained.

I don't think they did that here.

That type of pile was a specialty of 'Franki Piling'. A close variation on your description was there was no metal baseplate, but the pile was driven in the same way with the gravel plug drawing the casing downwards to a predetermined depth, but then the casing was held and the gravel plug was driven further and formed a 'bulb' beyond the casing (both outward and downward. The shaft was then filled with reinforcement and concreted, with the concrete compacted by the casing being oscillated vertically as it was removed. This gave good loading capacity with both endbearing by the bulbous end, and skin friction from the shaft concreted against the natural ground.
There were hundreds of these piles installed at Thorpe (M3/M25) interchange in the first half of the 1970s, including many raked at 1:4 to resist thrust from high retaining walls and a pain for me to set out those rakers.

 

[LYRobert]

That type of pile was a specialty of 'Franki Piling'. A close variation on your description was there was no metal baseplate, but the pile was driven in the same way with the gravel plug drawing the casing downwards to a predetermined depth, but then the casing was held and the gravel plug was driven further and formed a 'bulb' beyond the casing (both outward and downward. The shaft was then filled with reinforcement and concreted, with the concrete compacted by the casing being oscillated vertically as it was removed. This gave good loading capacity with both endbearing by the bulbous end, and skin friction from the shaft concreted against the natural ground.
There were hundreds of these piles installed at Thorpe (M3/M25) interchange in the first half of the 1970s, including many raked at 1:4 to resist thrust from high retaining walls and a pain for me to set out those rakers.

Yes, maybe that's what I witnessed. It's a long time ago (1991), and I'm not sure now about the sequence of events - after all, I was but an innocent by-stander, hanging about after a regular site visit (I was the architect) to watch this rare (for me) procedure.

 

[rower40]

Two queries:
How does one pronounce "Nuneham"? (Is it the same as the Cambridge College Newnham?) I've never heard it spoken, only seen it written.
Is the rebuilding still on target for re-opening on Sat 10th June?

 

[JN114]

Noo-numb

 

[stuving]

How does one pronounce "Nuneham"? (Is it the same as the Cambridge College Newnham?) I've never heard it spoken, only seen it written.

If you look at newspaper mentions of Nuneham Courtenay, about 1% of them are spelled Newnham. At such a low level you'd probably call that a mistake, rather then a variant spelling. But it does suggest the pronunciation of the two was identical.

 

[GrimJosef]

It will depend on who is speaking.

I'm not an Oxfordshire native but I've lived within 10 miles of Nuneham Courtenay, as the crow flies, for all but 3 or 4 years out of the last 45. Someone with a strong 'rustic' Oxfordshire accent will say Noo-numb. He will also compliment you on your noo car.

Someone who's lucky enough to live in North Oxford might well say Knew-numb. I've never heard anyone use an audible h in the middle.

Wikipedia says the place was spelt Newenham from the time of Domesday until 1764, and Nuneham thereafter. 1764 was the year that the 1st Earl of Harcourt, who lived in nearby Nuneham House (built 1756) demolished the old village, which was in the way of the plans he had for his estate gardens, and built a brand new one far enough away that he couldn't see it. It seems he altered the spelling of its name too.

 

[Falcon1200]

Someone who's lucky enough to live in North Oxford might well say Knew-numb.

I lived in Oxford from 1964 to 1984, still visit regularly, and that is how I would pronounce it.

 

[Nicholas43]

Today 29 May the contractor is continuing to build up the replacement embankment, using hardcore. Each, frequent, truckload is spread by diggers. At least one layer has been compacted by serious rolling.
I couldn't yet see how the south end of the south span is going to be connected to the Chunky Things which are fixed to the north side of the cills.

 

[Wolvercoter]

I lived in Oxford from 1964 to 1984, still visit regularly, and that is how I would pronounce it.

I'm from Abingdon and pronounce it Knew-numb as well. Although I've never heard of Nuneham Viaduct until recently... I've always known it as 'Black Bridge'.

 

[Nicholas43]

Update (from last week, 26 May) by Network Rail is here.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Update (from last week, 26 May) by Network Rail is here.

Extremely informative. Thanks for posting.

 

[josh-j]

Great little video, always nice to see civil engineering in action.

 

[mr_moo]

More Kudos for Stuart Calvert and the comms team. Doing a great job of keeping everyone informed.
Massive kudos to the engineering team - this is incredible to watch!

 

[Nottingham59]

Update (from last week, 26 May) by Network Rail is here.

On that video, the bridge main truss beams now seem to project beyond the line of the 8 piles that will form the abutment. How did that happen? Last week, it looked like they would need an offset cap to support the main beams.

 

[zwk500]

On that video, the bridge main truss beams now seem to project beyond the line of the 8 piles that will form the abutment. How did that happen? Last week, it looked like they would need an offset cap to support the main beams.

It's all in the angles...

 

[Nottingham59]

It's all in the angles...

I guess so
It was the photo in post #818 that was misleading.

 

[zwk500]

I guess so
It was the photo in post #818 that was misleading.

In that photo, it can be seen that the bridge beams project between the piles, and then in the latest updates they can be seen resting on the capping beams between each pair of piles.

 

[swt_passenger]

I guess so
It was the photo in post #818 that was misleading.

If you compare that one with the other 2 photos from the same Twitter post, they’re in #813, you can see it’s the exception, almost certainly because it’s taken on an angle to the vertical. The later photo in #835 also shows an overlap between the centre span, (which is slightly lower), and the centreline of the piles.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 May 2023 ==

Update:

Another report by BBC South’s Paul Clifton on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/PaulCliftonBBC/status/1663798034419818496?s=20

I’ve grabbed a view from the video, showing the end view across the new piles, now in two rows.

 

[zwk500]

I’ve grabbed a view from the video, showing the end view across the new piles, now in two rows.

Do you know if the right-hand line of piles will be cut/driven to the cill beam height or will there be packing between the cill beam and bridge span?

 

[swt_passenger]

Do you know if the right-hand line of piles will be cut/driven to the cill beam height or will there be packing between the cill beam and bridge span?

No idea sorry, but it seems logical the latest piles will be cut down at some stage, at least to below ballast depth. Don’t know how they usually deal with the interface along the line of the tracks.

 

[Nicholas43]

I'm puzzled that Network Rail say the span will be 'lowered' to rest on the new abutment. The span looks, to me, as though it's horizontal now (having been jacked up from a pronounced lean).

 

[mr_moo]

Stuart Calvert mentioned in the video that they were working on a 50mm gap for the last component, so I wonder if it's 50mm higher than horizonatal currently?

 

[LYRobert]

It's all in the angles...

The line of piles is not at right-angles to the bridge spans.

Are they (that's the mysterious "They" again) going to paint the bridge, when all is finished? It needs it!

 

[WesternBiker]

Are there plans (while this work is underway) to tackle the rust/peeling paint on the existing span? It looks like a job that needs doing pretty soon.

 

[swt_passenger]

Are there plans (while this work is underway) to tackle the rust/peeling paint on the existing span? It looks like a job that needs doing pretty soon.

Incredibly unlikely. It will be done on a completely separate maintenance cycle.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

If you compare that one with the other 2 photos from the same Twitter post, they’re in #813, you can see it’s the exception, almost certainly because it’s taken on an angle to the vertical. The later photo in #835 also shows an overlap between the centre span, (which is slightly lower), and the centreline of the piles.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 May 2023 ==

Update:

Another report by BBC South’s Paul Clifton on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/PaulCliftonBBC/status/1663798034419818496?s=20

I’ve grabbed a view from the video, showing the end view across the new piles, now in two rows.

View attachment 136305

Great progress and puts the doomsters firmly in the long grass that the date would be achieved.

Nothing like a crisis to bring out the best in our industry.

 

[zwk500]

Great progress and puts the doomsters firmly in the long grass that the date would be achieved.

Nothing like a crisis to bring out the best in our industry.

Yes, it will be interesting to see whether they hand it back with full linespeed and no restrictions or if there are still some follow up works to do. Massive credit to the engineers of many varieties who have come up with the idea and then executed it so smoothly (we hope, fingers crossed).

 

[Bald Rick]

Yes, it will be interesting to see whether they hand it back with full linespeed and no restrictions or if there are still some follow up works to do. Massive credit to the engineers of many varieties who have come up with the idea and then executed it so smoothly (we hope, fingers crossed).

Id be astonished if there wasn’t a speed restriction, if only for the new track on the approaches.