Update Saturday 19th May

First visit for two weeks due to family commitments last weekend.  Vegetation is growing really fast due to the constant rain we seem to have been getting over the last two months.   Nettles especially have shot up in the last two weeks making access difficult in some places.  Will have to take a stick with me next time!  First picture is behind the scrapyard where the settlement ponds will be located to take the run off from the viaduct.  A Grand Central service was passing at the time. 

Looking north, the piledriver has moved even closer to the scrapyard, suggesting that there are not many piles left to finish.

I then moved up on to the triangle of land between the main line and the former Bedford branch.  This shot looks back south towards the scrapyard and the piledriver.  Although it is hard to make out, immediately left of the piledriver is the ramp being built up to access the former Bedford line embankment where the new line will move onto the viaduct.  Better picture later in the report.

Turning the camera slightly left, you can see the preparations for the last viaduct pier on the triangle.

And next to it, another one at a more advanced stage.

And here is one they prepared earlier! It is all starting to make sense now.

The heap of pile tops grows ever larger.

Moving north, formwork and steel reinforcing is going up for the pier immediately next to the main line.

On the other side of the main line, a line of three piers under construction.

I moved round to the bridge in Cadwell Lane by the scrapyard entrance.  Since my last visit the scrapyard has been taken over by a new company, judging by the signs that have gone up.  Reports of its imminent demise due to the railway works seem to have been exaggerated!!  A way to accommodate both must have been found.  More of the Bedford embankment has been stripped back to allow piers two and three to be constructed.  It has been removed right back to what would have been the the original embankment of the Great Northern in 1850 before the Midland added its bit in 1857.

Looking towards the piledriver through the site gates. The end of the support wing of the former Bedford line bridge is on the right. The viaduct will swing quite quickly away from the main line to curve back over it.

Turning round, this is the access ramp up on to the end of the embankment where the viaduct will start. After crossing the River Hiz underbridge, the new line will turn out on to this section of embankment that is being built up with brick rubble.  Pier number one will be situated just behind the wing wall on the left.

I then drove round to the end of Wilbury Way to check progress on the east side of the main line. This new "hill" has appeared in the former sewage treatment works since my last visit.  A similar heap of pile tops to the one on the other side can be seen to the right.

My last shot shows that work has started on the chalk removal on Wilbury Hill. The planning application is not being heard by the county council planning committee until next week so they must be pretty confident that permission will be granted.  From this distance, it looks like they are removing the top soil ready to start quarrying the chalk.