Folkestone Viaduct
Rhinoceros will soon be starting work on restoration of the listed Folkestone swing rail bridge and railway viaduct.
Restoration of the former railway infrastructure is part of a major redevelopment of the Folkestone seafront, and will create new public access from the northern side of the harbour. The railway itself was officially closed by the Department for Transport last year, The overall project includes more than 1,000 homes and 10,000 sq m for retail use.
Rhinoceros, working under main contractor Graham Construction, will be blast cleaning and repainting the swing bridge, and also carrying out brickwork repairs and repointing to the 11 arches of the viaduct. Work is expected to start early December.
The Folkestone Harbour Company has appointed Mr. David Crump, who has previously worked on the Wembley Park and Greenwich Peninsula redevelopments, to lead planning and delivery of the project.
Mr Crump says the plan is intended to trigger a full range of social and economic benefits for the town. The project received a boost last year with a £5.1 million grant from the Regional Growth Fund, after plans were formally approved in January 2015 by Shepway District Council.
The former harbour station will be retained as a major access route on to the Harbour Arm and development.
The Rhinoceros team at Folkestone Harbour Viaduct have completed blast cleaning and priming to Span 1 and have now commenced work on Span 2.
Steel repairs have also started on Span 1, while bricklayers are now working on Spans 4, 5 and 6. They expect to start work on Span 3 imminently when the scaffolding is erected.
Work on the Folkestone Harbour Viaduct is progressing well, with brickwork repair and repointing now reaching halfway along the main viaduct sections.
In the meantime, blasting is now also underway on the Victorian swing bridge in preparation for repairs and re-coating of the badly corroded ironwork .
Rhinoceros teams, working for main contractor Grahams, are making the most of a mild start to the Spring.
Above: The old and the new. Work on the Folkestone Harbour viaduct is progressing well with Rhinoceros teams repairing badly decayed brickwork along the first spans, as seen in the photo below.
Main contractor Garhams are meantime removing asbestos and preparing the steel swing bridge for blast cleaning and recoating, to be carried out by Rhinoceros in the New Year.
Work is now underway on the Folkestone Harbour Viaduct refurbishment.
Work has started with needle guns, lump hammers and chisels to remove rust ans scale from the swing bridge.
Meanwhile 8 of our bricklayers are making good progress repairing spalled and chipped bricks and repointing on the surfaces which have been exposed to the relentless erosion from wind and waves.
Work has now started on the listed Folkestone swing rail bridge and railway viaduct.
The Folkestone Harbour viaduct was built in 1843 by the South Eastern Railway Company, and was designed by William Cubitt, Chief Engineer of the line. The structure crosses the harbour with 13 arches (one arch to the north of the harbour, on the west side of the viaduct, is hidden by the adjacent jetty access ramp).
The swing bridge, also included in the restoration project, was designed in 1930 by George Ellson OBE MICE, Chief Engineer for Southern Railway. It is composed of three main longitudinal girders and sits on a brick base with stone quoins. The base is original to an 1893 bridge on the site, which itself replaced an even older swing bridge. When operational, the current bridge was swung by means of an electric capstan on the wharf and a rope, and the lifting and locking mechanisms were hand operate.
Photo:Elaine Webber [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The branch and harbour station provided a rail connection for boat trains from London which connected with the ferry services to Calais and Boulogne. They closed to regular passenger train services in 2001 although the line and station continued to be used by the Venice-Simplon Orient Express and railtours until 2009. The line was officially closed on 31 May 2014.
A Rhinoceros team has now begun re-pointing and brickworks repairs to the viaduct, working under main contractor Graham Construction. The Rhinoceros project includes blast cleaning and repainting the swing bridge.
The restoration project of the former railway infrastructure is part of a major redevelopment of the Folkestone seafront, and will create new public access from the northern side of the harbour.
