Hammersmith Bridge was built in 1887 and is one of the most loved and most photographed Thames crossings. It is a Grade II* listed structure.
It has a very high traffic volume for its age, with more than 20,000 vehicles crossing it every day. It was never designed to carry this volume and weight of traffic and the constant vibration from those vehicles damages the bridge and road surface.
It is now time for the bridge to have a full refurbishment. This will include strengthening work and a full resurfacing that will last for many years.
Major repair works to the bridge are expected to start in late 2018.
The bridge has 172 huge bolts, all of which will need inspecting and some may need replacing, as part of the refurbishment.
There are only two bridges like this in the world, the other spans the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary.
Because of this replacement parts and tools – such as the giant spanner being used here – often have to be custom made.
I built a mailbox post about 12 years ago which worked great until a snow plow snapped it in half. So I decided to make a new post, and video the process. Our mail box is a large T3 rural type. If you have a smaller, more common T1 size mailbox, the design can be easily modified. This is a not to hard DIY project. I show you how to do it. I used a 10 foot pressure treated 4×4 post, and some galvanized bolts, nuts and washers. That’s about it. The power tools I used were a 7 1/4″ circular saw and a drill. I could have used my DeWalt miter saw, but I decided to keep it simple.
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