TAFE Crossing points II

In December last year (2018), a new set of points were installed near the TAFE crossing. This project was completed to a point that allowed the line to be reopened for traffic, but it was not completed.

This month – November 2019 – the line has been closed again to finish this construction off and it is hoped to finish this in the next 4 or 5 weeks.

9th November 2019

The trackbed has been excavated and the conduits for the negative feeder installed. The rails are laid out ready for welding.

16th November 2019

The rails were welded and by the end of the day were ready for concreting next weekend.

23rd November 2019

More welding and preparations for concrete. Welding has been held up by total fire bans. However, enough track and formwork is in place to take concrete if any is offered.

Photographer: Matthew Geier

December

December has rolled around and due to the extreme weather we have experienced, this project has suffered delays. Between firebans preventing welding from being completed (A fire ban also means ‘hot works’ ban), one of our welding volunteers has also been called away for ’emergency work’ work by his employer, so has not been able to put in the time when the weather did allow.

14th December 2019

First concrete!. (Donated surplus). It was ‘going off’ by the time the truck arrived, so it was rush panic job!

Photo by Martin Pinches

4th January 2020

A couple of members who had some time off over the Holiday season took the opportunity to finish the welding and levelling work. On Friday the 3rd they discovered the local concrete plant had re-opened early for a job and 2m³ of surplus concrete arrived. During the super hot Saturday the 4th they moved the formwork forward and completed the levelling. The rest of the worksite is now ready for concrete.

The colours of the photos are odd due to the effect of smoke haze on the colour of the sunlight.

Wednesday 8th January, 2020

A good load of concrete was placed, really moving the project along.

Photos: Danny Adamopoulos

Saturday 11th January 2020

More concrete was placed and the ‘cess’ concreting reached the end of the refurbished track. Once this has cured, trams will be able to run past this point. Between here and Army a number of timber sleepers needed replacing and the CSO workers installed 8 new sleepers the same day.

Photo: Matthew Geier

Saturday 18th January 2020

The formwork was stripped and the cess back filled. The ‘4ft’ still needs to be filled, but the track is structurally complete.

Scrubber 11 made a test run and scrubbed and washed out the grooves.

Photos: Daniel Nguyen