The Laverton flood

Thursday 31 October

After all the rain over the last week we only had 1 more report of flooding, this second report concerned Bridge 6 at Laverton. The gully drains under the bridge were blocked with cut vegetation, probably washed out of the bridge wings. Someone, possibly the local highways dept, had closed the road, or set the 'Road Closed - Flood' signs up. Not that many people were taking any notice, they just ploughed straight in. It only took us a couple of hours to clear the grates get the water away, a success to start the day off.

Bridge 6 at Laverton 

Signage in place, to little effect 

From the up side 

Blow-back on the north abutment, something must be working 

Vortex on the south abutment, it's going away 😊

Michael raking a lid clear 

Pumping to Culvert 5D to speed the job up 

Sometimes all you can do is wait 

Andrew sweeping, Micheal with the grab 

Last bit going down on the north abutment 

South abutment gully 

Job done! 

As we were up the north end, we grabbed the opportunity to clear Culvert 2A at Childswickham Road, Broadway.

Culvert 2A up side 

Culvert 2A down side 

2A down side, Andrew clears along the headwall 

Fighting the way down 2A up side 

Culvert 2A up side 

Sleeper bridge up side Culvert 2A 

On the way back past we stopped off at Culvert 7A to see if the rain had made any difference to the leak, it hadn't. The flow was less than it was on our last visit and it's still leaking out of the headwall on the up side. The plan being discussed involves pumping the water out into the cess and digging the silt out to examine the headwall. 

Culvert 7A up side headwall leak 

To round the day off we went to Dixton cutting to look at the crest drain following the flood last weekend. It looks like we will need to get a machine in to dig out the crest drain, first we have to work out if it's feasible to get in there. There will be a lot of clearing required before we can dig.  

Dixton Cutting down side crest ditch 

Dixton, down side cess 

Culvert 32A down side flume and vegetation 

Culvert 32A down side, fallen branches 

Back at Winchcombe, the contractors are using the haul road we cleared along the up side sidings. This is the route to get the materials down for the erosion control works on Culvert 21A (River Isbourne).

Track to Culvert 21A 

Regraded slope down to the culvert 

750mm pipe to be used as temporary flume for the river
(Photo: Alastair) 

Checking the level of the river bed
(Photo: Alastair) 

Culvert 21A up side works 

Underwater handrail for the divers? 😎

The new starter joined us today, Michael had taken Ted home and put him through the wringer, or possibly a washing machine. He's back in the truck now almost as good as new, except for a bit of ear missing, but that hasn't affected his hearing 😃

Ted in the truck