Thornycrofts Aid Bridge Building in Rhodesia
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IN a recent issue of the bulletin of the general manager of the Rhodesian Railways, some details are given of the organization for transporting large quantities of steel and other materials for the building of the Birchenough Bridge over the Changadzi River—the third 'largest bridge of its type in the world.
Owing to the length and weight of individual pieces of steelwork—in some cases 51 ft. and 8 tons respectively— some difficult transport problems have been encountered, because in certain places during the 80-mile journey up country from the base at Umtali, only narrow tracks with acute corners are available for road vehicles. Furthermore, gradients up to 1 in 8:have to be climbed where the roads are. at their worst. and, the climate being semitropical, the results of heavy seasonal rains have been detrimental to the maintenance of the regular supply of material to the erectors on the site.
The transportation department of the Rhodesian Railways, however, was quickly alive to the magnitude of the task. and at the outset specially modified Thornycroft 3-ton and 5-ton rigid
six-wheelers were constructed. In the case of the 9-tanners, these were converted into articulated eight-wheelers by arranging a turntable over the rear bogie to carry the front end of a longwheelbase two-wheeled trailer, whilst for -the larger vehicles special trailen were made 'from existing models in ordinary use to carry 5 tons of steel framework up to 45 ft. in length.
Up to the end of March of this year, these outfits had successfully dealt with nearly 3;000 tons of steelwork without a single accident, and at the present time the work is still going on.