Down at Fosseway our small team of dedicated volunteers have an esablished routine. First, the sheet steel piling is installed. (See last month). Then a slab base is prepared
for concreteing, a new slab is laid roughly once a week. Meanwhile blocks are
laid on the previously hardened slab base. Once the block walls are set the space
between them can be filled, but in layers so the weight of concrete doesn't push
the walls apart. Clay is rammed down behind the wall to ensure no leaks. Brickwork edging is laid on top then the towpath base put down. And
so the cycle continues. A couple more slabs and we will have reached the
woods, which is about as far as we can go for the moment.
Watch this video to see
how it's done, with some words of wisdom from Brian Williams and Hugh Millington.
At Gallows Reach the team have begun to install sheet metal piling, heading back toward the chip shop. Once the piling is progressing the whaling beam and tie rods need to be installed and the towpath can be back filled and reinstated.
At Gallows Wharf work has progressed well with the towpath wall, several hundred bricks where taken out from the section of wall that was buried between the cabin and the footpath and is not going to be used as it will be piled.These bricks have been reused further along to the wharf on the towpath wall. Safety railings have been extended on the base of the ramp and the raised section has a safety rail added. The wall is being followed up with new towpath base and the raised flower bed section has been extended to allow for the tree growth and has been planted up
At Tamworth Road Lock 24 the towpath has to be re-routed slightly. Lock 24 will no longer be required as the canal will need to stay at the lower level to avoid a hump-back bridge at Cricket Lane. For more on Lock 24 see the Heritage Towpath Trail page.
Peter Buck explains the future plans in this video:
It was a busy day along Tamworth Road on yesterday, with a good turnout of our DofE volunteers at Gallows Reach. They were hard at work recycling heritage bricks, recovered from the old towpath wall, to be used in the restoration of the heritage towpath wall. Further along the Lichfield Canal at old lock 24 the Green and Grounds volunteer Team got stuck into clearing brambles and undergrowth in the lock mouth and along the old boundary wall, ready for the next stage of work.
📷 Thanks to Paul Jewitt, Paul Marshall, Steve Webster, Christine Howles, Touluru, and Peter Buck for the photos used on this page.
