Stanton episode 27

Monday 24 June 

With just 4 of us in the focus remained on the rebuild and on the excavation of the inlet end. Another milestone ticked off the list as the rebuild on the channel north wall on the down side started. That may just be a few bricks, but it means that the up side south wall is nearing completion. 

The only cloud on the horizon now is that the down side north wall looks decidedly like a rebuild candidate instead of just a pointing exercise. The headers need to come off to raise the level so that it is a similar height to the new south wall. Our experience of removing headers has proved that the courses underneath will probably lift off with the headers, but it will be worth effort to get it right. 

Culvert 11A up side, start of day 

Dave and Roger sorting bricks 

Roger filling in the gap on the stretcher course 

Dave brick cleaning
(Photo: Alastair) 

Over on the inlet side, we need to divert the flow for the bricklayers and to remove the old channel floor beyond the walls. This area will be concreted when the gabion baskets go in to replace the old sleeper retaining wall. 

Start of day, water still seeping in on the left side
wall where the bricks have been removed 

The flow has uncovered some taper bricks that form
the old channel floor were the pipe was removed 

Pipe inserted through the inlet 

Alastair clears out the field side of the inlet 

After test fitting the pipe it was removed while further excavation was done around the end of the 600mm pipe.  

A bit of side wall recovered after being buried for a number of years 

Stuart digging out the north side
(Photo: Alastair) 

The water flow from the down side cess has created underground channels, this has undermined an area around a buried sleeper 

Buried sleeper and the undermined ground 

Roger cleaning off the remains of the old mortar
(Photo: Alastair) 

Down side, the first lot of bricks being replaced
(Photo: Alastair) 

Down side north wall, the bricks going back in 

As there seems to be a lot of seepage up through the bricks, the view is that some drainage needs to be built in. Some 3" clay pipe has been acquired for that purpose. 

Roger measures up the drainage pipe 

Our truck had to taken in for a service this afternoon, that was a good excuse to knock off early. The heat and humidity was a bit oppressive today, so we didn't need a second reminder to head back to base. 

End of day, south wall up side