Following on from my July Work Party Blog, the work down between the A51 and the
narrows of pound 27 has progressed steadily. All the concreting of the canal base has
been completed. The only concreting left to be done down there is the back filling
between the wall, as it is being built, and the original gabions. And, of course we are in
the hands of the 'brickies' as to it's progress. Even so, as I write this, I can report that
the wall is almost complete save the top two courses where bull-nosed bricks will be
used to finish off the job.
The gap between the canal's concrete base on the tow-path side and that on the other
side has been excavated to about half a meter in depth. Into this trench some puddle
clay has been laid. The puddle clay needs to be laid in three layers of about six inches
with much compacting between each layer to establish a leak proof infill. To date only
the first layer has been done from end to end. In fact we need just the right amount of rain
to make this job easy. Too dry and the clay becomes rock hard and won't stick between
he layers. Too much rain and we will find ourselves trying to work in a large puddle with
clay sticking to just about everything. Puddle clay is also being used to seal off the A51
end of these works and hopefully with sufficient rainfall the whole area will eventually
retain a good depth of water.
We have decided not to move the earth access ramp by the narrows to the other side of
the pound as reported in last months blog, so much work for so little gain. Digging the
last few barrow loads of earth out of the narrows might be a problem, we'll have to wait
and see.
With work now drying up down at the narrows our attention is returning to pound 25.
Here, not surprisingly, there is still a load of concreting of the base to be done, however,
what is holding us up is the ' #### big pipe' yet again. And we have yet to get
permission to remove it. It is again holding every thing up. 'Ha well what's new'!
You will have noticed the black plastic dams across the pound 27 in two places. We
have a water loss situation here and the dams are a way of isolating sections of the
canal to help us investigate where the water is escaping from. At the same time
desperately trying to comply with the E.A dictate on the onward flow of water through our
works into the brook beyond the A38.
In next months blog I hope to report on progress in Lock 25 and on progress of work in
Lock 24. But with work envisaged at the Fossway Nature Reserve coming up, and work
to be done at the Gallows Wharf, they could well impact on what we do next and where
we do it.
Full 360 degree photo by Christine Howles
