Sunday, April 11, 2010

How I made a road

After deciding on the location for the road leading up to one of the overbridges (see How I cast two concrete overbridges), I trimmed a piece of card to act as a template for some hardboard shuttering. This was to contain the concrete for the roadway leading up to one side of an overbridge.

The template was placed on the hardboard, drawn round and then the hardboard was cut using a jigsaw.
The same was repeated for the other side of the shuttering and the two pieces were held in place with wooden stakes (bamboo canes).


Where the roadway reached ground level, a trench was dug with a trowel to a depth of around 4"

The trench and shuttering was half filled with crushed rubble and gravel.........


... and then sufficient concrete was mixed (3 parts sand, one part gravel and one part cement). Red cement dye was added with the water once the components had been dry-mixed.


More water was added until the concrete mix reached the consistency of thick custard.

The concrete was then poured into the shuttering and trench........

.... and smoothed off with a small builders' trowe.

Coarse builders' sand was then sprinkled into the wet concrete and gently tamped down with an old paintbrush.


Once the concrete had set to its 'green' state (ie not fully hardened), the shuttering was removed and stonework was carved into what would become a retaining wall leading up to the bridge. An earth embankment was created where more appropriate.

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