Chasewater Dam News
Pool Road temporarily opens
Dec 20th, 2011 by lizziethatcher
As you will be aware, due to the hazards associated with the construction works at the site, members of the public have been prevented access to most areas since November 2010 for their own safety.
However, because of the good progress that we have made, we are pleased to be able let you know that we are able to open Pool Road to pedestrians over the Christmas period. Galliford Try will be closing the construction site down for Christmas tomorrow (Wednesday 21 December) when they will be making arrangements for walkers to be able to cross the overflow bridge at the Nine Foot Pool, and so have access along the whole length of the eastern dam.
Unfortunately, we will have to close this access off again when we return to the site on Wednesday 4 January 2012 to enable us to complete the works in this area and will remain closed until completion of the works in the spring of 2012.
However, we hope that this temporary access will allow members of the public to enjoy use of the park over the Christmas break, and we ask that the safety requirements are again respected at the end of this Christmas period.
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December update
Dec 20th, 2011 by lizziethatcher
It might be getting colder by the day and the snow getting ever closer, but on the whole the weather has been very kind to us since the last update in November, and we have made excellent progress with the works.
We’ve finished the main works at the northern end of the embankment and removed everything from the north shore that was being used as a storage area. The grass seed that was spread on the dam embankment is now starting to grow, and last week a team of volunteers has spread cuttings over the area behind the dam to provide a seed bank to encourage the growth of a heathland habitat come the spring.
The work to extend the stop board grooves in the ‘hidden chamber’ which will allow improved maintenance access to the valve chamber in the future is finished.
Water levels continue to rise and the inlet chamber is now completely submerged. There is still a concrete cover slab to cast at the canal basin which will be done in the New Year – otherwise, our work in that area is complete.
That leaves the works in the Nine Foot Pool. The casting of the concrete spillway slab was originally programmed for the New Year. But we have taken advantage of the weather conditions and brought that forward and were able to cast the final section last week, completing that work.
Concreting work can be difficult in the winter as ideally, temperatures have to be above freezing and rising for new concrete to be placed, otherwise the frost can seriously damage the fresh concrete.
We can now be reasonably certain of completing the Redirock retaining walls around the spillway early in the New Year as this operation is not adversely affected by cold conditions.
The last items of concreting work on the project are the headwalls to the overflow pipes and the main weir in front of the spillway, all of which are planned for the New Year, weather permitting.
Finally, could we, the Chasewater project and site team, thank you all very much for your continuing patience and understanding over the past year. We would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and very much look forward to handing Chasewater back to you soon after the New Year.
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