to Guy Gorton's website.
Special edition covering collapse of tunnel at Gerrards Cross,
A
length of the tunnel built to carry a Tesco store over
the railway at Gerrards Cross collapsed on the evening
of June 30, 2005. The area for the store itself
is not affected. The collapsed section is under
part of the area being filled to make the car park.
This
page illustrates the situation on the day following
the collapse and also serves as 'home' for other pages
related to the collapse.
You can go to the TescoTunnel home page here.
| December 2005. Although six months has gone by since this account of the dramatic events at Gerrards Cross was created and published, I have decided to leave it exactly as it was at the time (except that some pictures have deen reduced in size), pictures, conjecture, errors and all.. |
The recovery of the railway started on July 2nd.
Pictures are here.
Some pictures of the clearance of the site between
July 3 and July 10 are here.
The illustrated story of the work to make the railway
safe again is told here
The finale is the resumption of train services on
Saturday 20 August, told here.
By request, a diagram of the site has been added here,. Use your browser's back button to return here.
A wide view of the collapse. The steel work for
the Tesco store is in the background. Opinions
expressed as to the reason include very heavy rain
making the fill material very heavy and insufficient
side filling before the top load was increased.
.
The hole is quite dramatic.
The
tunnel segments interlock with each other with a
stainless steel facing. The steel facing and the
concrete behind it of the segment on the left seems to
have been forced down, thus releasing the segment that
should be present on the right.
A new
vantage point and a small ladder have allowed capture
of additional pictures of the collapse from the north
side.
Amid
the mounds of fill material lie tunnel segments
still with waterproof coverings still attached.
I think it is safe to say that this is the
last of the segments to collapse in the domino
effect that must have taken place.
The
broken end with almost surreal mounds of material.
Judging from the height of
fill over the tunnel, this is presumably where the
collapse started.
Detail
of the pressure plate between opposing segments.
The pictures that follow show the construction method, and may help to put the collapse pictures in context.
May
2005. From the southern side.
After
positioning the base of the segment, with careful
precision, in the groove of the base, it is
lowered towards its mate. When it is within
a few inches, the crane driver drops the segment
hard against its mate. The thump is
considerable and in one instance I watched was
repeated several times, seemingly to nudge the
other segment into a better position.
Positioning the next segment in its
base. Just two men, with some serious size
crowbars were able to position the 25 ton segment.
If the collapsed section is rebuilt, the whole damaged
area will need to be cleared down to this level.
Possibly the foundations will need to be rebuilt
if they have been damaged.
Return
to the top here.
Version
6
May 30, 2006
(Links
changed).
Revised to 1024 width, thumbnails added
for links. July 2015