West
Vale Branch |
Despite the cold weather, work at Steppingstone Lane is progressing steadily with the culvert pipe removal being completed in February. This has left just the concrete end walls to remove before completely clearing the bridge invert. We have removed many tons of brick rubble from the collapsed arch and are slowly moving this away from the work area. We have found several stone copings including three of the four end-buttress caps, which will be re-used in the bridge reconstruction. The site still suffers from flooding between work days but this is quickly cleared thanks to concerted pumping using two pumps before work starts. It takes about 90 minutes to empty the work area.
I am pleased to report that our bridleway diversion is holding up well despite the cold wet weather and regular use. We will carryout some minor in-filling in a few places at the end of the winter. Hopefully, this will only be there for another couple of winters!
New spring growth appearing in the Canalside Park and along the towpaths means that we have got to start our regular grass cutting and hedge trimming sessions again. This is always time consuming and is the result of our previous successes. The more we restore, the more we have to maintain!
Many will have received a copy of the January Canal Update, which I hope explains in a bit more detail what we currently working on in the Shrivenham area. As I write this, we still have a few more to distribute in Shrivenham itself, but these will be completed before the end of February. Please contact me if you haven't received a copy and would like one, I'll arrange to get one to you.
For more information or to volunteer assistance please come along to one of our meetings held in the Shrivenham Bowls Club, Martens Road, on the second Wednesday of every month at 8 p.m. You will be made very welcome. For those with a computer and Internet access please visit our Branch Web Site at www.westvalecanal.fsnet.co.uk.
Orph Mable - Branch Project Co-ordinator
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