Spring!

The weather and the metrological calendar certainly agreed that it was spring for our first working day in March. Even at 8am, there was warmth in the sun, which was well above the roofs of the Winchcombe sheds. Plus with no significant rain for over a week, most of the puddles in the yard had disappeared. However, the ground is still wet, very wet in places as we found out.

Thursday 6^th March

Eight of the team attending today; the group formation was 1-2-5.

Jonathan was the solo man – he spent the morning working on plant maintenance at Winchcombe. (This does not count as lone working, as plenty of folk from C&M, S&T, C&W and Admin were in close proximity). The major job was the replacement of the battery on the mini-digger; this involved quite a lot of dismantling to access it. He also fitted a battery charging point; this will avoid all the dismantling if the battery goes flat in the future.

Roger and Andrew headed for Stanton. The bridge inspection team had reported water seeping down the down (Cotswold) side cutting between the main B4632 road bridge (8) and Stanton Road bridge (10). Additionally the team from Walsh’s, our contractors, who were rebuilding two wing walls of bridge 10 reported a ‘spring’ close to the down side low mileage wing wall about half way down the cutting side. We established that the ‘spring’ was a leak from the pipe that runs from a crest chamber to the cess chamber by the bridge. This takes run off from the road; we suspect the pipe is blocked with limescale at its lower end. We then investigated the whole of the down side cutting back to bridge 8. There are quite a few damp patches, particularity where land drains enter the cutting. Some of these drain into french drains, which require cleaning out. Additionally the crest ditch just inside the boundary hedge/fence requires attention. In places this was damp – and there was one pool of water remaining from the last wet spell. The area around Stanton Aqueduct (bridge 9) is by far the wettest. Just north of the aqueduct there is a small concrete retaining wall, probably installed in the BR era to stabilise a previous slip. The ground here is mainly clay, which does not make for stable conditions. We shall discuss plans to address the issues with this cutting with our (new) Infrastructure Manager and the Civil Engineering director; avoiding a slip here is amongst our high priority items.

Tracer dye added to the crest chamber low mileage down side of bridge 10.

Over an hour later no dyed water has reached the cess chamber. Note the limescale deposits.

A fissure in the clay which is filled with water.

North of the B4632 road bridge (8); our vegetation contractor [Tom Clarke] and our Lineside Clearance colleagues have cleared the up (Malvern) side bank. This time next year we should see a lovely grassy bank covered in wildflowers. But in the meantime all that cut material needs removing from above the cess drain!

 

Meanwhile, the famous five (Nigel, Dave, Polly, John, and Peter) headed south to Two Hedges Road. Their first task was to demolish the poor brickwork on the syphon inlet and outlet chambers of cross drain 39B. On the outlet (up or Malvern) side; this turned out to be relatively simple. Hence they were able to rebuild the offending wall and install blue mesh covers. So a task completed!

39B outlet, damaged bricks removed and spoil dug out. Ready for rebuilding. [Photo by Dave]

Polly soon has the replacement bricks in. [Photo by Dave]

Job done - now hidden under blue mesh lids. [Photo by Dave]

 

The inlet on the down side was not quite so straightforward. Two walls which consisted of a single thickness of brick came apart easily. But the other two walls, which we think were originally an L shaped headwall, resisted demolition. So a slight change of plan. We removed the three displaced coping bricks. We will now rebuilt these three walls to match the level of the retained copings; and then we will add new GRP rings on top. This will reduce the number of GRP rings required (which we don’t have in stock) at the expense of more bricks (which we do have in stock).

39B inlet before demolition started. Original strong headwall to right and bottom, note the three displaced coping bricks. The later added crumbling brick walls left and top. [Photo by Dave]

 

 

 

 

Ready for rebuilding, we will use new blue engineering bricks here. [Photo by Dave]

Temporary fitting of blue mesh cover to prevent animal ingress.

Another sign of spring was the use of our deckchairs for lunch break. But with the sunshine not quite so strong as earlier; and a stiff breeze, it was soon back to work. Andrew joined the group after lunch, Roger in his other role in the First Response Team spent the afternoon providing fire extinguisher training. The afternoon task was excavating around the syphon washout cover of cross drain 40A. This at the edge of the up side cess. The excavation was to enable a concrete footing for a small retaining wall; this will make the cover easier to spot – both by us and by our contractors with their remote controlled flail. The excavation revealed a buried SGP pipe close to the syphon washout. This pipe appears to be the cess drain, diverted away from the syphon. The presence of hollow figure of eight concrete blocks seems to indicate this was another item modified in the BR era. One section of the GRP cess pipe has a piece missing from the top; the reason for this became obvious when after a bit more excavation water started oozing out of the cutting side. So again, we changed our plans slightly. The concrete for the footings was placed either side of the SGP pipe; when we build the wall there will be a lintel over the pipe. Hence we had a barrowload of mixed concrete spare. A quick decision was made to transport that a couple of hundred yards south to use as backfill on the small down side headwall where the cess drain enters the toe ditch leading to culvert 40B. Waste not want not!

40A syphon wash out cover (circular metal lid); SGP pipe alongside with hole to take water seeping from the cutting side. Not a recommended arrangement!

 

Concrete footing poured (well placed carefully with shovels) ready for the small retaining wall.

Finally we added some tracer dye to the inlet of syphon 40A to check that there was no leakage from the syphon into the down side cess drain.

Wildlife report: A regular blog reader has been in touch with a concern about harming hedge hogs when strimming or brush cutting. When we are strimming or brush cutting any area; we always do a visual check before hand to spot any obstruction on the ground. However, we have never found any hedge hogs – only items like soil nails, fence post remains and tree stumps. In fact, we have never seen any hedge hogs along the line – probably because they are mostly nocturnal. Today the only mammal evidence was several rabbit holes, some deer hoof prints and deer runs through the undergrowth. Horticulture wise, it is definitely spring. We noted the first signs of early blossom on some blackthorn trees, full bloom daffodils of various varieties (including narcissus), and several patches of primroses (Primula vulgaris).

Primula vulgaris at Stanton.

At Stanton birdlife noted included jays, robins, long tail tits – whilst at Bishops Cleeve several black headed terns were noted circling above.