Friday's unusually high flood water demolished one of our temporary pier supports, leaving the railway tie beam jammed under the form, directing the full force of the current against the north abutment, creating powerful eddies, eventually causing enough structural damage that, when the water receded, we decided, rather than shore up the stones, we needed to redo the entire north side of the bridge.
We removed the voussoirs on that side, leaving the full weight of the south side voussoirs to cantilever the form in place while we worked all Saturday to rebuild the dry stone abutment with bigger stones.
All the previous stonework including springers, foundation stones and hearting and shims and rubble needed to be removed!
It's always 'disheartening' to take apart dry laid work.
