River Dargle Flood Scheme, Bray, Co. Wicklow: P1230907_a

River Dargle Flood Scheme, Bray, Co. Wicklow: P1230907_a

River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the last full week of November, 2016.

A quick trip down to the Harbour area, just to check out progress here. This is a section of the flood protection scheme that I have pretty much ignored — it’s inconvenient for me to access, and others cover it much better.
Check out ‘Turgidson’.

Standing on an access bridge, adjacent to the Bray Boxing Club (from whence sprang Katie Taylor, and others of illustrious note), looking back up the river, towards the town direction.

In the foreground is the Railway bridge, and in the distance we can see some construction works taking place on the Ravenswell Road, temporarily closed due to on-going works.
That is the site of the old Bray Golf Club — hotly contested as a (potentially) poorly considered site for a shopping centre development complex, and still an area of ground that has to act as a flood plain in the event of tidal surges.

The Irish Rail Bridge, Bray Harbour:
Phase 1 flood defence works to the Irish Rail bridge commenced in August 2016.
Phase 2 flood defence works will be completed during May to September 2017. This work is being undertaken directly by Irish Rail.

The work includes strengthening the integrity of the bridge by creating buttresses around the base of each pillar.

To do this they have to pile-drive sheets into the river bedrock.
The work is complicated by;
(a) the need not to damage or disturb in any way the actual bridge itself (Irish Rail train and DART carriages pass overhead on an hourly basis), (b) the confined spaces under the bridge, and (c) the twice-daily rising tides from Bray Harbour which spill upriver into the newly expanded basin.

To create proper foundations for the columns, the guys are having to drive steel piles deep into the bed of the river. Similar to work done elsewhere. Within that waterproof chamber, they set/poured concrete to build the columns.

This pile driving work here involves a sub-contractor using an excavator-mounted vibratory pile driver – possibly a ‘Movax’ model. That’s the combination they used in 2014 with the work opposite La Vallee.

Very delicate work – pick up, adjust grip, swivel, align, interlink with previous pile, and then drive downwards.

Once driven down to the required depth, a weldor comes along and makes short shift of cutting through to the proper height. The excavator then grips the upright spar and gently ‘breaks’ it off. You might ask — why not cut the sheet beforehand? It would make life easier for everyone, especially when ‘driving’ it down to the bedrock in such tight confines.

Posted by O Suave Gigante on 2016-11-25 15:05:49

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