Cant believe its been so long since I updated this thread although to be honest I have not been to the canal much since new year for several different reasons.
Anyway got there last weekend. Sunday, canal, yes it pissed down all day!!!
First job is to publically thank Graham for very kindly donating the spare wheel and tyre that he had, which is a perfect fit for our 5t dumper.
He made a special trip to deliver said item. Thank you, it is very much appreciated.
The weather has been very kind to progress. The dam and syphon put in place above the lock has worked a treat in controlling any rain water, along with a submersible on a float switch installed at the tail of the lock a reasonably dry work area has been maintained.
The following pictures are stolen from the canal web site and I wish to credit Richard Crook the canal webmaster for both taking them and taking the time to upload them to the canal website.
http://www.weyandarun.co.uk
This is the shutter for the towpath side pour on the top cill and incorporates both the gate and top sluice recesses and the tunnel for the water to pass into and flood the lock once the top gates are closed.
As a result there is quite a bit of work involved for lads with very little experience of such complexity.
The first pour is to the top of what becomes the waters tunnel. It is a channel at this point. The shutters are then struck (removed) and paving slabs laid to form the roof of the tunnel. The next pour then brings everything up to underside of the copings.
I am led to believe this pour was completed on Thursday.
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These next two are again towpath side but at the tail of the lock showing construction of the backpump chamber. The black steel channel stood on end is for the stop planks.
We actually got the concrete into the gap between the blockwork on Sunday.
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These two show how the brickwork facing is comming along. None of these lads are qualified / certified brickies. In fact Eddie shown in the second picture, here doing the chamber walls, who also did the bulk of the award winning New Lock horse bridge is a retired banker!!
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These are my pics from Sunday. Excavating for the offside training wall at the tail of the lock.
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These are to show that we have had some rain
I'm really pleased I managed to get the bottom of the canal cleared of silt before the water came. There is water trapped here due to work further south beyond Devils Hole lock where they are attempting to locate and seal some of the leaks in that pound. To keep the work area as dry as possible Devils Hole Lock gates are closed along with dams below the lock and pumps.
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Re: Wey and Arun Canal
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