Restoration of Queen’s Pier, Ramsey, has taken another step forward - with the order of new steelwork for the next two bays.

Meanwhile, the volunteers of this community-led project are busy pressing ahead with installing the timberwork on the first bay before work has to stop for the winter.

Project manager Stuart McKenzie said: ’We have placed the order for bay 2 and 3 steel with a delivery date towards the end of January so as to coincide with the recommencement of work after the winter closedown.

’Assuming it is fabricated, galvanised and painted to schedule then we can pick our time to install in the new year when the weather is kind and the crane support from our fantastic sponsors, Isle of Man Heavy Cranes, is free.’

Corroded iron girders in bay one were swapped for new steel during a bank holiday weekend in May.

Stuart reckons that the big lift operations for bays 2 and 3 will be carried out separately to spread the workload.

Surveyor

A surveyor spent the weekend before last with a plethora of advanced laser and other electronic devices establishing the exact layout and dimensions of the work area in bays 2 and 3.

This will facilitate the preparation of fabrication drawings by the engineer’s design team, and once verified by the pier trust’s structural engineering consultants, will be used by the fabricators to construct the new girders.

Meanwhile on bay 1 several volunteers have been engaged in establishing the correct levels for the large transverse larch beams and bolting them down onto the girders with stainless steel rods.

Stuart said: ’It is vital that these levels are accurate as they set the level for the whole pier.

’There are 10 sets of beams on bay 1 after the two massive greenheart beams which carry the cast iron grids and it is a long process.’

Eight cast iron wavebreaking grids are now in place above the bullrock at the landward end of the pier, with a further eight ready to go on.

The remaining grids all have some damage, which the volunteers are working hard to repair.

All will need painting with the same marine two part epoxy paint used in the girders, with the top coat being black.

Tram

The next task will be to lay longitudinal railway ’stringers’ to support the new track for when the pier tram is reinstated.

Stuart said: ’We are continuing to work hard up to the point where the scaffold boards have to be lifted but we are very weather dependent at this time of year and had to suspend work last week when waves were breaking over our work area.

’However, we will ensure that all the timber is well and truly secured to combat the winter storms!’