Stanton - Moving up a gear

Thursday 11 July 

Much has changed since we were last on site, Steve and Richard, the contractors, have installed 2 gabion baskets in the farm track and are preparing the base for the next 6 on the down side. The north wall on the up side keeps growing and the end for the up side cess has been excavated. There was a visit today from the Health and Safety consultants and no significant issues flagged up. All in all a good day. 

The parts for repairing the old cement mixer hadn't arrived this morning so the new mixer was commissioned, that took a little while before we left for the site. 

Oops! should have read the instructions 😕

Many hands make the mixer work
(Photo: Alastair) 

Ready for the off 

The gabion work on the up side is to repair the farm track where it had slipped away into the stream at the end of the culvert. This is partly due to the water scour when it floods and partly the increased size and weight of farm machinery. While doing the gabions the pipes for the gully drain and the Culvert 11B connection were incorporated. 

Culvert 11B connection stub 

Gabions in the farm track including the pipework 

Michael took over the up side north wall build, starting from where Roger left off on Monday. 

North wall start point 

Steve in his new kit
(Photo: Alastair) 

Alastair gets first dibs on the new mixer 

Work was under way on the down side gabions 

Steve and Richard excavating down side gabion base 

He won't be doing that with a full one 🤣
(Photo: Alastair) 

The down side cess extension pipes will be installed next week, the ditch scour needs to be filled in to get the pipe up to the same height as the existing pipe.  

Down side cess headwall 

Nigel starts to dig out ready for concreting the up side cess outfall, a side wall will go in at right angles to the channel north wall. 

Nigel hard at work
(Photo: Alastair) 

Michael laying the header course 

Things had moved on by Lunchtime... 

Almost at the end of the course 

The gabions on the down side are replacing the old sleeper wall that was holding the embankment end back. A concrete slab needs to be laid on the clay to form a firm base to build up on. 

Down side gabion base 

Stuart pumps out the old sleeper hole in the down side gabion base
(Photo: Alastair) 

Ground water filled the hole
where the sleeper post was removed 

A mix and a half of concrete soon filled the void 

Back on the up side it was all action 

Activity on the up side
Nigel, Alastair and Michael 

The concrete backfill for the gully trench will be arriving on Monday, so the rebar is going in, it's laid out ready for assembly on Saturday. 

Rebar 'U' sections and laterals 

Michael starts the next stretcher course
(Photo: Alastair) 

End of day, changes on both sides. 

Up side end of day 

Down side end of day 

Up side cess outfall excavation 

Some of our eagle-eyed readers have commented on the slight movement on the down side north wing wall. The wall is showing signs where some movement has happened in the past. We can confirm that there is no sign of any current movement, the pointing on each side of the crack has not separated since it was done a number of years ago (no data on when it was it was done, possibly back in BR days). When viewed from the up side, the shadows tend to make the move look worse than it actually is. Hopefully, this will set your minds to rest 

Down side north wing wall