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djw1981 wrote:Given the clear timeline of the job where A needs to happen before B, before C etc, small knock-on delays can snowball if it means doing a particular task in poorer weather than you had planned. The approach roads are starting to look more like roads, but I suspect are being left until later in the year as on-shore work is sheltered etc, and this may allow more focus on the lifting work - though probably involving different teams of workers.
Yes, I can't see holding up approach road work would speed up bridge work.
The northbound approach to Echline suddenly took a new line the other week. From the ground it's difficult to work out what's what - I wonder how easy it is to get on to the roof of the Dakota?
I understand people's desire to see the bridge open as soon as possible but we should bear in mind that a worker was tragically killed on the bridge in April.
Taking risks due to pushing to meet a deadline only puts more lives in danger.
I am quite happy to wait as long as it takes for the bridge to be completed as long as everyone who works on it goes home safe.
Yorkshirelad wrote:I understand people's desire to see the bridge open as soon as possible but we should bear in mind that a worker was tragically killed on the bridge in April.
Taking risks due to pushing to meet a deadline only puts more lives in danger.
I am quite happy to wait as long as it takes for the bridge to be completed as long as everyone who works on it goes home safe.
Plus it's not like it changes very much. Before the new bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. After the bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. It's only the potential for failure on the old bridge which means this is getting built.
Yorkshirelad wrote:I understand people's desire to see the bridge open as soon as possible but we should bear in mind that a worker was tragically killed on the bridge in April.
Taking risks due to pushing to meet a deadline only puts more lives in danger.
I am quite happy to wait as long as it takes for the bridge to be completed as long as everyone who works on it goes home safe.
Plus it's not like it changes very much. Before the new bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. After the bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. It's only the potential for failure on the old bridge which means this is getting built.
Yes, but it'll be a better standard than the FRB, unfortunately with the same standard of driving though.
Yorkshirelad wrote:I understand people's desire to see the bridge open as soon as possible but we should bear in mind that a worker was tragically killed on the bridge in April.
Taking risks due to pushing to meet a deadline only puts more lives in danger.
I am quite happy to wait as long as it takes for the bridge to be completed as long as everyone who works on it goes home safe.
Plus it's not like it changes very much. Before the new bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. After the bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. It's only the potential for failure on the old bridge which means this is getting built.
How long before we see the hard shoulder converted into a running lane? It's essentially going to be wasted space anyway, might as well put it good use.
Yorkshirelad wrote:I understand people's desire to see the bridge open as soon as possible but we should bear in mind that a worker was tragically killed on the bridge in April.
Taking risks due to pushing to meet a deadline only puts more lives in danger.
I am quite happy to wait as long as it takes for the bridge to be completed as long as everyone who works on it goes home safe.
Plus it's not like it changes very much. Before the new bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. After the bridge opens you have two lanes each way across the Forth. It's only the potential for failure on the old bridge which means this is getting built.
How long before we see the hard shoulder converted into a running lane? It's essentially going to be wasted space anyway, might as well put it good use.
They could have a third lane all the way to Halbeath. I've never yet seen a bus in the northbound bus lane (admittedly, I'm only ever on that stretch for about 5-10 minutes, but still...).
djw1981 wrote:Given the clear timeline of the job where A needs to happen before B, before C etc, small knock-on delays can snowball if it means doing a particular task in poorer weather than you had planned. The approach roads are starting to look more like roads, but I suspect are being left until later in the year as on-shore work is sheltered etc, and this may allow more focus on the lifting work - though probably involving different teams of workers.
Yes, I can't see holding up approach road work would speed up bridge work.
The northbound approach to Echline suddenly took a new line the other week. From the ground it's difficult to work out what's what - I wonder how easy it is to get on to the roof of the Dakota?
An easier option is to get onto the B800 bridge. There has been a lot of activity visible from there in recent weeks, and now that the pavement works on the bridge are complete you can get a close look at what's going on underneath.
For those on here who apparently didn't believe the statements about bad weather, this Q&A has taken place in the Scottish parliament:
Neil Bibby (West Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government on what dates
adverse weather conditions have affected construction on the Forth replacement crossing.
(S5W-00624)
Keith Brown: Adverse weather affects construction activities in different ways ranging from the
need to alter a method of work to completely cancelling a piece of work. Consequently, it is not
possible to list every date where adverse weather conditions have affected the construction on the
Forth Replacement Crossing. However, the contractor estimates that approximately 20% of the project
programme has been impacted.
Referring to my statement on 8 June 2016, the dates on which adverse weather conditions affecting
construction during April and May 2016 are the dates on which wind gusts exceeded the threshold to
allow critical path activities to take place. These are as follows:
April reporting period:
26 and 27 March (2 days)
28 March (0.5 days)
4, 6, 11, 12, 17, 18, 24, 25 and 29 (9 days)
1, 5 and 26 April (3 x 0.5 days)
April Report Total = 13 days
May reporting period:
2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 20 (9 days)
5, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26 (6 x 0.5 days)
May report total = 12 days
The contractor’s reporting period cuts off on the last Friday of the month and so for the April
reporting period the 13 days lost were in the period 26 March to 29 April and the 12 days in May were
lost in the period 30 April to 27 May 2016.
Showing that the northernmost gap in the deck has been closed.
I was in Scotland from Friday to today and the closure was an item on the teletext news there.
teletext? that got closed down with the end of analogue TV!
If the northernmost gap is already closed I wonder how much they will have achieved when Im there?
In a few weeks? Not that much; the gap between the centre and south towers has closed a bit but there's still a big gap between centre and north. Driving past it daily, there's a certain amount of frustration when it seems as if there's a long period between section lifts. Not looking forward to another winter's slog on the FRB...
While on the subject, I wonder to what extent they can control the sag at the ends of the roadway. Sometimes it looks as if the ends will never line up. I imagine once the cables are in place, that's it, unless there's some sort of mechanism to adjust the tension.
I read somewhere that as they get closer, they alter the cable tensions to ensure they line up then spend ages adjusting them all so each cable has correct design load.
djw1981 wrote:I read somewhere that as they get closer, they alter the cable tensions to ensure they line up then spend ages adjusting them all so each cable has correct design load.
djw1981 wrote:I read somewhere that as they get closer, they alter the cable tensions to ensure they line up then spend ages adjusting them all so each cable has correct design load.
Different thing I know but when we had a school trip to the Costain factory at Tallington where they made concrete pre stressed bridge beams they said that the wire tensioning job was done at night time as that was when there were the least number of people around 'in case anything went wrong' and bits started whipping around as the tension released.