Stanton Steelworks

Saturday 13 July 

The Stanton Steelworks title may frighten residents in the area, there isn't a steelworks near here! There were some steel workers here today though. Final preparations were underway for the concrete pour on Monday. That's not forgetting the brick works and excavations that went on as well, as usual it was a hive of activity (most of the time 😉). 

The steel work involved building the reinforcing bar (rebar) cage that will protect the gully drain pipe and add strength to the south channel wall on the up side after the concrete is poured in. The cage was built in-situ; after toying with the idea of having it fabricated, we reverted to tying the bars together to hold them in place until the concrete hardens. It was mainly down to cost and allowing for flexibility in the design. 

Dave cuts tying wire into 450mm lengths
(Photo: Alastair) 

Tying wire then formed into loops 

Michael gets cracking on the north wall
(Photo: Alastair) 

The rebar cage was formed with 'U' sections and lateral bars. 

Dave and Stuart thread the laterals through the hoops
(Photo: Alastair) 

Tying wire loop threaded around the lateral and hoop 

Twisting tool used to tighten the loop to fasten the bars together 

Alastair got on with the finishing off the footings for the junction where the up side cess outfall runs into the stream at the end of the brick channel. A new concrete apron with wing walls will go on here. 

Alastair excavating 

Michael made steady progress on the north wall while all the other activity surged around him 

Front course of recycled brick in place 

For the back of the stretcher course on the north wall we are using new imperial (73 mm) bricks. Being machine made, these are all the same size, this accentuates the differences in size of the original hand made bricks from 1904.  

The offset on the joints shows the size variance 

Cage taking shape 

In at the deep end 

Dave is now the expert at rebar tying 

The tying is tiring work 😖
(Photo: Alastair) 

Almost done 

Worm's eye view,
extra lateral along the shallow end 

As a reward for building the cage, Dave and Stuart were despatched to Winchcombe to get anther cage; this time it was the grille that the good people in Carriage & Wagon have fabricated for Culvert 7A inlet end. It has been stored at Stanton until we can clear the vegetation and take it up to fit it. 

Dave loading the small section 

7A grille, large section 

Nothing doing on the down side today, there's a bit of ground water on the gabion base that was excavated on Thursday. 

Down side gabion base 

The gabion base work has exposed the end of the of the down side north wing wall. The cant into the embankment is clearly visible, with the foundation layers made up of red bricks then the blue's building up the wall with a wedge on the top to get the headers level. 

Down side north wall end on view 

By close of play all seems to be ready for the concrete pour on Monday, only time will tell if that assumption is valid 🤔

Up side - view from above