Sorry that there has been a gap in transmission, but sometimes life get's in the way of volunteering. Well, that and the blogger's other Social Media job. So what's been going on since the last issue, here's a synopsis:
Since the last blog on 12th June, Dave and Nigel have been working one day each week. Similarly, Andrew and Martin have been in on a different day each week. Then over the last 3 weeks more operatives have been skulking around on odd days.
The plan was to work north to south inspecting the culverts and cross drains, with some vegetation clearance where there was no bird nesting implications. We can't touch anything like ash, bramble, thorn or the like without doing a nesting survey, at least until the end of the season on 31st August. I'm not sure who tells the birds they have to vacate by a set date, presumably it must be in the lease document when they set up home in the bushes.
There must be around 100 photo's from the inspections, far too many to show here without it taking a week to load them all. Here's a few.
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| Culvert 24C down side, the water has gone missing (Photo: Andrew) |
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| Culvert 28A up side, chamber in the field nice and clear (Photo: Andrew) |
Culvert 28A chamber was vacuumed out in November and there's a rumour the someone working up in Stanley Pontlarge village may have crushed the drain before it reaches the railway. If so this is a good move, it saves us having to clear the chamber and diverts the flow onto the road.
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| Culvert 30A Middle Stanley up side, the headwall has had a bump (Photo: Andrew) |
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| Culvert 31B Prescott Road, Martin goes in search of the lost end (Photo: Andrew) |
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| A ghostly quiet Toddington Shed (Photo: Dave) |
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| Culvert 14B up side outflow (Photo: Dave) |
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| Culvert 17B down side, Nigel just finishing the headwall clearance (Photo: Dave) |
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| The elusive Culvert 16A down side uncovered (Photo: Dave) |
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| Culvert 25A up side Working Lane looking dry (Photo: Dave) |
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| Culvert 25C up side in need of sorting (Photo: Dave) |
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| Culvert 32A Tirle Brook in Dixton Cutting (Photo: Dave) |
Progressing towards Gotherington at a cracking pace
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| Nigel keeping his feet dry in Culvert 33A down side (Photo: Dave) |
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| Culvert 33B is an inside job (Photo: Dave) |
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| Gotherington, Culvert 35B down side (Photo: Dave) |
Back to Middle Stanley now as we had been tasked with clearing some of the bridges so that engineers can do a detailed inspection, they are on a 6 year inspection cycle.
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| Culvert 30A down side (Photo: Andrew) |
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| Bridge 30 up side (Photo: Andrew) |
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| Culvert 35C down side (Photo: Andrew) |
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| Culvert 35D down side (Photo: Andrew) |
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| Manor Lane, Culvert 36B up side (Photo: Andrew) |
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| Culvert 36B Down side, flowing |
With the focus on the bridges, Dave and Nigel headed back into Worcestershire, it sound further than it is 😉
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| Bridge 2 Childswickham Road (Photo: Dave) |
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| Bridge 3 Pry Lane (Photo: Dave) |
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| Bridge 4 Peasebrook Farm (Photo: Dave) |
