Monday 4 November
It always happens, another report on flooding came in after publishing the last blog and saying we'd only had 2 😒. This saw us head off to Didbrook No2 Bridge (Bridge 16) with all the kit to get the road back open. Once again the flood signs had been set, but it took a steam loco driver to pass the message to us after spotting a wet cyclist on Sunday. Not too much traffic to contend with today, although one hapless motorist didn't see any signs 😖
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| Is this sign not clear enough |
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| Bridge 16 aka Didbrook 2 |
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| Roger brought his wellies so he looks for the gully drain with a rake |
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| Form the up side, it's just as wet |
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| The vortex, it's a sign of success |
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| Level down below 1' |
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| Roger looking for another gully |
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| Clearing up the ash leaves |
All this hassle was down to ash leaves blocking the gully drain, plus a bit of silt in another gully. One pleasing sight was finding an undertray lost by someone trying to go too fast through the water.
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| Serves you right, undertray recovered from the water |
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| Pump deployed to drain the last of the south abutment |
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| South abutment down side gully |
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| North abutment down side gully took most of the water away |
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| South up side gully, found by IGI the graffiti artist 😉 |
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| Down side as we left |
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| Up side now passable |
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| Sign put back to neutral 😊 |
Bridge 28, at Stanley Pontlarge is on the examination schedule for the structural engineers this week. As it was a bit flooded on Saturday, we popped round to clear the gully drains. You can't have enough of gully drains in one day 😓
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| Roger looking for a gully at Bridge 28 |
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| Never mind leaves on the line, it's in the drains that causes problems |
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| Stanley Pontlarge Lane dryish |
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| Bridge 28 up side north abutment gully |
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| Dave digging the silt off a gully |
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| Roger gully grabbing the silt trap |
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| Dave promoted to road clearing |
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| North abutment up side gully pumped out |
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| Pumping into the south side gully |
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| Outer north up side gully |
Back at Winchcombe the contractors installing the erosion control measures on the River Isbourne, Culvert 21A, have removed the flume pipes. The weather is working against them, so they have abandoned the job for a week until some steel piling sheets arrive so they can better protect the works.
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| Culvert 21A up side, flow has abated a bit |
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| Flume pipes removed and stored |
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| The haul road has turned into a tramway without the steel rails 😊 |
Alastair missed all the excitement today, he was busy escorting the structural engineers examining culverts.
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Culvert 5C, down side, preparing to enter the barrel
(Photo: Alastair) |
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Culvert 5C, taking notes
(Photo: Alastair) |
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Culvert 6B down side, ready to pop in
(Photo: Alastiar) |
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Culvert 4A up side, last measure
(Photo: Alastair) |
Tuesday 5 November
Second day of the examinations, 1 culvert and 1 disused bridge to do today, but they are at the opposite ends of the line 😒. First off there's 40 tonnes of Forest Red gabion stone destined for Culvert 21A to unload, well not quite unload, just to watch it being tipped.
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| Second load of gabion coming off |
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| Culvert 3B Little Buckland, pre-entry safety checks |
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| Culvert 3B up side headwall |
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| Cuvlert 3B up side headwall with feet emerging |
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| Culvert 3B up side headwall plus engineer |
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| Culvert 3B up side headwall scour depression |
From Little Buckland we head off to Bishop's Cleeve with a stop at Stanley Pontlarge to look at Bridge 28. Luckily the road closure at Gretton that has been causing long detours has been lifted, the closure at Greet is still in place though, so it's not all plain sailing. Cleeve always has something to surprise us, the railway is evidently the main recycling pint for Halloween pumpkins 😞
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| Who's idea was Halloween? |
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| Engineers looking inside Bridge 41 |
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| Bridge 41 up side, examination in progress |
To avoid wasting time waiting for the engineers to scrape around under the bridge, Stuart headed off to count the chambers on the Bishops Cleeve Station drain run, this one is 1,046m long and crosses 2 siphon culverts, a channel culvert and a sewer pipe.
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| Cleeve Station cess drain first down side chambers |
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| Cleeve Station down side cess drain headwall |
Are the flume pipes (21A) to be permanent or just a temptorary measure until the gabions are in place?
ReplyDeleteSycamores and Ashes are the bane of all our lives at this time of year. No one is managing the adjacent tree growth any more.
Powli
Hi Powli, the pipes were temporary to allow them to put the gabions in, now they are going to put pile steel sheets to make a cofferdam. Waiting for them to be delivered
DeleteHaving found Stanley Pontlarge Lane on 2010 Streetview, it seems that over the past 9 years, much more soil & other detritus has encroached on the road under the bridge. I applaud the heroic efforts of the drain clearance teams. Lucky they are, not to be up to their ears in mud & crocodiles, as the old business adage goes!
ReplyDeleteWould it be expedient to use a minidigger to scrape the verges & remove the soil well away from the wing walls, so it's not washed down by very heavy rain? Leaves should be easier to clear than gullies blocked with leaves & mud under standing water.
The big problem at Stanley P is the silt washed down from the hills, it runs down a bridle path further up. We had intended to take the piles of silt away to Gotherington to do some backfilling but never got round to it. It's back on the agenda :-)
DeleteMaybe the motorist who lost the plate set the signs after they did so...
ReplyDeleteNoel
Noel, I admire your faith in the human spirit, I'm slightly more cynical after having to explain that water is deep and wet and cars may not like it :-) Stuart
DeleteAh, so there were other motorists whom you personally warned (with the signs up)? You're nice, I'd have been tempted to let them learn the hard way! Although I guess that might have left a drowned car in your way!
DeleteNoel