August 7-14
Recently, there have been one or two ‘preparation’ days in addition to the regular three-day work party. In August, there were five ‘preparation’ days. Welcome to a bumper work party report!
On this occasion, the prep days followed the regular work party, hence the apparent delay in posting this report.
The August work party started on Friday in warm, dry weather with two main aims in mind – vegetation clearance in Waen Wen and completing the shuttering and steelwork for the Schoolhouse Bridge wash wall footings. Once again, the Society’s already healthy volunteer numbers were complemented by corporate volunteers, this time from Agilent and CGI, a total of 11. The extra hands were a considerable help in the labour-intensive task of vegetation clearance and we are very grateful for their support.
Since last November when trees were felled in Waen Wen, much vegetation has regrown in the area including new growth from the remaining stumps. Some shoots from willow stumps had already regrown by 2.5 metres since spring (that’s an average of 2cm per day!) As the site was now dry, the time had come to remove the remaining stumps. The regrown vegetation needed to be cleared in order to see the scale of the task. Clearance of and around the stumps over the entire site – 430 metres of channel, including the expansive Waen Wen Basin – was completed, incredibly, in little over a day and half. There was an urgent need to find more tasks for willing volunteers to complete.
Thankfully, there was no shortage! A further length of channel was lined and blocked in Phase 2 on Saturday, with riprap and soil covering being manually placed above block level on both banks on Sunday. Another group removed temporary fencing along the now decommissioned haul road that had been used for Phase 1B, thereby returning this area to the adjacent field.
Whilst all of this was ongoing, a further group was concentrating on work for the towpath wash wall through Schoolhouse Bridge. A good start on shuttering and steelwork for the wall footings had been made at the July work party, and this work needed to be completed in readiness for the concrete pour scheduled for the following Wednesday. Thankfully, by Sunday afternoon, all the shuttering, rebar mesh and vertical rebar had been installed, completing a very tidy job indeed.
And that was the end of the regular work party ….. but ‘preparation’ work (for subsequent work parties) continued all the following week, during which the country experienced yet another heatwave. A visit by CRT senior engineer Ian Draycott on Tuesday signed off the footings work giving the all clear for the following day when a small team of volunteers returned for the pour. A four wheeled mixer was able to reverse down the ramp into the channel as far as the bridge to deliver concrete directly into the formwork. Concrete was conveyed from the mixer by power barrow for the length beyond the bridge. Starting at 10am, the job was done and dusted by 2pm. Due to the very high temperatures, the concrete was periodically sprayed with water to prevent it drying out too quickly. Thanks go to the volunteers who worked in the sweltering heat to complete the job so efficiently. Construction of the wall itself can now commence next work party.
Finally, onto the stump removal activity. This started as soon as the first few stumps had been cleared of regrowth and continued relentlessly till the task was completed on the afternoon of the following Friday. During that period, approximately 200 stumps were removed.
A 13-tonne digger with root hook attachment was hired for the job. This excellent piece of kit made light work of many stumps, but larger ones took longer to extract, sometimes up to three hours. A variety of tree species were encountered: ash, alder, willow, sycamore and wych elm – all reacted differently but by the end of the week we had become expert at how best to deal with them. Saving the best till last – a multi-stemmed monster stump comprising six stems of wych elm, two of ash and, growing up through the middle, two of sycamore – was tacked on the final day. With patience and persistence, even that succumbed. Just a handful of large stumps growing by the lane were left for fear of damaging the road. These will be removed shortly by a stump grinder contractor.
A special mention goes to Graham and Tom who worked continuously for all eight days to finish the stump removal. Whilst fantastic progress has been made, a tremendous amount of clearance still remains. The above ground sections of the stumps will be sawn off for logs and all brash needs to be collected and disposed of along with the stump roots. A start was made during the week, but this task will take many months. A couple of drainage channels have been dug in an attempt to keep the site drier and accessible for longer.
PS There have been no fewer than three readers who contacted directly enquiring as to the whereabouts of this report – thank you for your interest and support. To our avid followers, please be aware that the September work party is a week later than normal to coincide with Heritage Open Days. More on that next time.
Good work