Earlier in the year I photographed the Valentine's Day storm ripping apart Penzance promenade, even though it is constructed of two-ton granite blocks. The swells were heavy enough to break up the jigsaw construction and scatter hundreds of them along the shoreline.
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| Valentine's jigsaw destruction |
The blocks were recovered from the sea bed and craned onto the top of
the prom where they have rested all summer, awaiting someone to come and
replace them. Someone genius enough to unscramble the pile and rebuild this jigsaw.
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| Storm damage to the old railings |
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| Jigsaw pieces |
So yesterday I went down with a camera to see how the crane and workmen have been piecing it back together over the past few weeks.
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| Each block has been measured |
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| Main keystones laid |
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| Flat blocks laid down between key stones and held in place with steel bars drilled through the block. |
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| Holes drilled in the blocks so they can be lifted |
The engineers studied old photos and drawings of the prom to make sure the rebuild is a close as possible to the original.
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| A keystone bedded in and levelled |
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| Some blocks have to be cut to fit |
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| Eventually a clean edge to the platform will emerge |
It's a fantastic piece of heavy engineering which is occurring on the promenade now, one not seen since the prom was first built, and when it got breached by a storm in 1966. Imagine how difficult it would have been when it was first built to move blocks of this size without the use of a crane, using horses, block & tackle and manpower.
Naturally, as winter approaches again, thoughts turn to the possibility of more major storms and whether the re-vamped prom will stand up to them. With the addition of reinforcing bars and new concrete one would hope so. We don't want another winter jigsaw puzzle to solve!
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