Wet and dry, hampers progress

Saturday 9 November 

What a day, too wet for anything except meetings and sorting kit out. The only real activity was by Dave and Michael going up to Greet tunnel clearing around the chambers. The truck was in for repairs and couldn't be collected until 9:30, that made for a leisurely start. Then it was off to Hinton on the Green to collect a freshly serviced brushcutter, returning via Bridge 5 at Little Buckland, Bridge 6 at Laverton and Bridge 16 at Didbrook to make sure they hadn't filled up with water again. 

Michael doing the post delivery checks on the new brick saw
(Photo: Alastair) 

New possession limit boards arrived 

Gas monitor for doing the catchpit surveys 

Michael heads off down Greet cutting
(Photo: Dave) 

Michael looking for the crest chamber
(Photo: Dave) 

Dave brushcutting in the rain on the crest at Greet 

The recent rain has waterlogged the surrounding area, we are getting more run-off from the fields that usual. 

Greet cutting down side, waterlogged fields 

Run-off reaching the sown side cess, Greet cutting 

Bridge 28 at Stanley Pontlarge hadn't flooded at lunchtime 

River Isbourne (Culvert 21A) flowing north
(Not the only river in England that does that 😉)

Monday 11 November 

Down to Bridge 42 at Southam Lane today to remove an area of limescale deposits next to the down side abutment of the bridge. The north end of the abutment and wing wall suffer from water leakage and the area above the cess drain blocks has become solid hindering the flow into the drain. 

Bridge 42 south side 

Bridge 42 Southam Lane, down side abutment 

Roger and Dave start trial holes at each end 

Drain blocks exposed 

Dave stops for a breather 

Roger and Nigel finishing the last bit of scale 

Exposed area left for monitoring 

Nigel cleared the vegetation from the last 20 chambers along this drain run.

Nigel cutting the vegetation back 

Another chamber exposed 

Dave went on a mission to find and uncover the up side cess outfall, getting bearings from the down side, in the hope they would be opposite each other. 

Kayte Lane down side cess, outfall 

Ditch down to Culvert 42A 

Down side headwall, with crack
(Photo: Dave) 

The cess continues in a twinwall pipe
(Photo: Dave) 

Unusually, the cess on the up side continues in a twinwall pipe, this probably runs right down to the culvert, something to check one day when we get time. We managed to get some more chamber documentation done this afternoon, dipping 23 chambers along the up side.

Dave removes the lid 

Chamber depth and gas level recorded 

The catchpits need to cleared out 

Mr Toad, the lodger in the drain 

Dave went to clean out the back of the chamber where one of the the racecourse surface water drains empties into the cess, it had amassed a collection of cans and bottles!

Racecourse drain empties into the cess chamber 

Dave raking the basin out 

The drain rings act as a filer to keep large litter out 

Water getting away into the cess 

Quick check on the River Isbourne when we got back, level dropping after the weekend rain. This is the third weekend in a row afflicted by rain. The level rises and falls fairly quickly as shown on the monitor station near Toddington. 

Culvert 21A down side 

Weekend rain again