Stanton - 160 days and counting

Thursday 22 August

It's 160 days since we started on Culvert 11A, that's calendar days, which equates to 68 working days. The original plan was for 18 weeks, we are now at 22, but given the changes to the plan with things like the rebuild of the north wall on the up side we are not that far out. Some other rail infrastructure projects would love to be showing only 4 weeks slippage 😉

What did we do today, built more walls and did more concreting. With 5 in today, there was no shortage of skilled labour. It allowed us to do some more vegetation management on top of the other works.

There was a visit to Toddington Station this morning to look down the gully drains, there's a bit of an over-spill issue that is endangering the shop and ticket office during heavy rainfall. The water lashes down the approach road and fails to take the corner ending up on Platform 1. This is a Construction  & Maintenance team task, but as it impacts drains we can bring in some of our kit to trace pipe runs and generally help out.

Morning at Toddington - GWR 2-8-0 2807
and Class 50 Ark Royal 50035 

Inside the gully drain
where does the outlet pipe go 

Back at Stanton, Michael was carrying on with the build of the cess outfall walls on the down side,  ably supported by Alastair, Nigel and Andrew ferrying supplies.

Which wall should I start on 

The concreting done on Monday has set, so the shuttering was removed from the down side cess and a second layer applied to the up side scour protection.

Down side cess headwall footings 

Up side scour step 

Andrew loading some Forest Red chippings
(Photo: Alastair) 

Alastair mixing the Forest Red concrete 

Nigel laying the Forest Red concrete on the end of the up side 

Andrew restocking the brick supply
(Photo: Alastair) 

Stuart went off in search of the down side of Culvert 11B, this area needs to be cleared as the Phase 2 of the project includes installing pipe to clear up a wet patch at the toe of the embankment. 

The path to Culvert 11B
(last cleared in March) 

Alternate route to 11B cleared along the embankment top 

The flail was struggling with the volume of vegetation
(Photo: Alastair) 

Culvert 11B inlet (down side) 

11B inlet ditches cleared  

Culvert 11B down side, still more to clear 

Back at the bridge, Nigel and Andrew were stocking up the bricks for the down side cess headwall

Not quite enough on the first delivery 

Michael was placing the headers on the inside wall round the gabions

Michael goes round the bend, in the wall 

End of day views...

Down side cess outfall inside wall 

Down side cess outfall 

Down side from the bridge 

Up side scour protection step