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Manchester Victoria Station

2M views 8K replies 446 participants last post by  Tony_H1 
#1 ·
A hidden jewel in Manchester's transport arsenal, if only a bit of money was spent on it, it would mean Manchester having 2 world class Rail gateways, with Piccadilly Being the ultra modern one and Victoria being it's classy Sister.

Its a crying shame whats happened to Victoria, its dark, dingy, is only served by crappy cattle wagons, and has no shops whats so ever.

If only the council and the train companies would step in to clean up the place and give it the attention her achitects envisaged,

Get it sorted, its closer to The City Centre then Piccadilly and would be a even classier station.
 
#2,121 ·
Looking at it, I'm wondering if there's a steel joist in there and the bricks are just a cladding?
It couldn't be anything else. My vote is that the bin-bag-esque cladding is to help stop off bricks falling off when they pick it off with a crane; the beam is currently supported at each end and will therefore sag (happy face), but the crane will lift it more centrally, causing it to flex the other way (unhappy face), stressing the mortar and potentially leading to minor brick retention failures.
 
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#2,124 ·
For want of technical parlance, here's a rough way it's done, if the whole was built from new:


Brick walls built to height of opening

Steel beam put on top, each end resting on wall

Then the wall above built

Steel beam clad in brick (bricks on underside possibly tied in and held in place until mortar sets by a former and props)

Then OLE and track built through arch after completion.



If it's a new opening in an old wall:


Small holes made in wall above beams location so supports and props can temporarily hold up wall above new opening while steel beam being inserted.

Slot for beam made wider than new opening and beam slotted in, resting on the wall at each end.

Wall above beam rebuilt where holes were made and temporary supports removed.

Wall below beam (except at ends) removed.

Beam dressed/clad in new bricks.

OLE/Track constructed through new opening.
 
#2,125 · (Edited)
Cheers for that iheartthenew, I just couldn't get my head around how they could do it with all that weight on top, in my head I had it that they had knocked the hole in first, I guess that would be pretty catastrophic haha

The last bits of daylight over the concourse are nearly history, just one small section of wall to go up front of the customer info point and metro bar and thats the last we will ever see of the old glass roof!

So long old buddy, you leaked on us for the last time!

Also I was amused to see the Phones 4U arena had men out recovering the stairs in no trip plastic going up to the box office, surely an expensive task for an item that can have no more than a couple of months left standing??
 
#2,128 ·
Guess they are worried about being sued if someone slips on ice?
Well WatcherZero... it's funny you should say that.

I am aware that NR have just had to pay out thousands in compensation for an unfortunate incident earlier this year at Victoria.

Apparently someone broke their leg in the car park earlier this year after tripping on a pothole.

If you go the entrance of the construction site (formerly the car park) you can still see the huge pothole in the middle of the road.

Bizarrely, the pothole is still there because the council and NR have refused to admit that they are responsible for maintaining that stretch of road - simply put the pothole straddles the car park boundary and road. If either of them filled it then they could be seen to being responsible for that stretch of road and liable for the compensation claim.

Initially they believed it to MCC's responsibility but it turns out to Network Rail's. Apparently there was no adequate provision (i.e. dedicated signposted pavement) for people to leave the car park. Secondly and most importantly routes out of the car park were not maintained for pedestrians (i.e. no pavements out of main entrance and potholes in the road).

So yeah, there probably very tetchy at the moment regarding slippages after having to pay out this year for a similar yet unfortunate incident.
 
#2,130 ·
It couldn't be anything else. My vote is that the bin-bag-esque cladding is to help stop off bricks falling off when they pick it off with a crane; the beam is currently supported at each end and will therefore sag (happy face), but the crane will lift it more centrally, causing it to flex the other way (unhappy face), stressing the mortar and potentially leading to minor brick retention failures.
My understanding of construction-related things is pretty much zero, so sorry if I was stating the obvious! ;) I went under it today & it looked like a brick had come off at the end showing a little bit of the steel joist. I reckon it still might be quite tricky to lift it off being as the OHL wires are so close to it - not like you can just scoop it up ... presumably they will have to attach some cables to it and just lift it straight up? I wonder if they'll do it at night so the tram tracks will be clear or wait until a weekend where there's already plans for trams to run through Victoria?
 
#2,137 ·
Nice work Duke, I was up having a gander in the same spot last night.

The crane was sleeping and the portal STILL stands!

They were busy last night pumping those massive holes with the bolt webs, rebar and what not full of concrete, they had a giant pipe from the station approach running down the concourse with a nice little bridge over the top so you could still walk around. :)
 
#2,138 ·
Me again.

Talking to the builders again last night, the works on platform 3 are indeed part of the new roof foundations and not for the future OHLE. The supports will go straight up through the current metal roof and there are 4 of them to do.

Also laughing about the stairs being recovered, couldn't understand it either!

He was telling me they piled right through the old subway next to the current platform 2 so I guess it wasnt filled up as some had thought. The piling machine is now at rest on platform 3 inside what was the super shelter, now looking a bit less super!!
 
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