Good Morning All

This weeks' update:

Village Site

The valve chamber near the new Pumping Station has now been poured and we are ready for the installation of the valve and the pipework. The land adjacent to the pumping station used for the site cabins is now ready for final landscaping, we are just waiting for a break in the weather. The drainage work within the carriageway is continuing and great news only approximately 10% left for completion. The drainage from the road up the farmers field to the lagoons is progressing however this has been hindered by more rock, although this rock is sand stone which is easier to remove.

Top Site

The lagoon liner is ready for transporting to site, however we need a drier spell so to heat weld the seams.

 The off-site muck is almost complete so there will be less vehicle movements.

As the nights draw in work will follow the daylight hours so the team will be finishing approximately 5pm.

Andy has sent me some photos.

Thank you again for your patience during this time

Good Morning,

A different kind of update this week..............

Actions speak louder than words!!!!!!

Good Morning,

Just to let you know I won't be visiting every Wednesday due to other commitments on other projects however, I will be still blogging and keeping you up to date as much as possible. The site team will be updating the notice board as well so keep an eye on it. If you want to contact me direct my telephone number is on the front page of the project along with Roger's.

The Village Site

We are currently reinstating the paddock area by the old pumping station, it will be back to it's form glory in no time although it still needs to be reinstated as do the other grassed areas by the Mill building. The work in the shaft area is continuing with the valve chamber construction under way, the rock beneath has been cut out with a rotary cutter on  the excavator to reduce noise and improve the speed.

The outfall to the river is now connected and is just awaiting two Tideflex valves to be fitted.... it's looking good.

The project has recycled a considerable amount of stone to date which has been either retrieved from the shaft works and or salvaged from the closure of the Foreshore Compound. We have and will continue to utilise the stone on the haul roads which will reduce offsite volumes and truck movements and to promoted green construction. Rock in the main road is still an issue and is getting no softer but is continuing to be remove.....we have 30 metres left to go!

We have needed to apply for a " road closure extension" and we are currently awaiting confirmation from Northumberland County Council, I will of course keep you informed once we have everything confirmed.

Top Site

The lagoons are progressing well but once again we have been hampered with the rain last weekend. In the next few weeks we will be inviting Komatsu to use one of their state of the art intelligent machines that will assist the lagoon work, it works through GPS!!

I'v attached some photos of the work, hope you enjoy them. Have a look at the huge blade we have been using!!!

Good Afternoon Everyone,

As you are aware back in March when we conducted our customer event on that very rainy Saturday morning we did explain as part of the conditions of  this work Natural England insisted we conducted our project between April and October, to protect this beautiful environment and to ensure the habitat and wildlife continued to flourish ......and rightly so. This meant we were due to be off site by the pumping station by 30th September.

However due to unforeseeable challenging geological working conditions we have requested Natural England who have kindly looked favourable on the circumstances and ensuring we have complied to the appropriate regulations they have granted an extension to our works.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your patience but we are not quite "there" as yet.

Joan

Good Afternoon,

Firstly I am sorry I didn't get up to see you this morning, normal service will resume next week.

Top Site

The earthwork and the lagoons are almost complete however some of the excavated material is unsuitable for recycling into the lagoons and we have had to remove it off site.

The Pumping Station

The pumping station shaft segments have all been installed and have been sealed and at long last and we are pleased to say only took 4 days to build however, substantially longer to blast.  The shaft framework is progressing and we are due to start the valve chamber construction and we intend to build above the rock level.

River crossing

The tie in works are unfortunately in rock so we are continuing to explore an alternative method to blasting to complete the works.

Drainage to the Mill area

Unfortuntately this area has been used in the past as a tip and we have uncoverd various materials. We would have normally used this material to backfill however, I'm afraid not on this occasion. For the historians..........apparently this area was an old historic dock.

Main drainage to the highway

We are still encountering rock which has stumped the experts, we are now employing an non explosive means of removal in this area. We have rock at one end and bad running sand at the other with water ingress.... such joy!

The work on the manhole and the outfall continues, once again the outfall is again in rock (no news there)

Well that's it from me today, hope to see/speak to you next week. In the meanwhile please drop me a line if you need to ask anything.

PS, more photos!

Good Afternoon,

Hope you have recovered from storm "Ali" yesterday.

Thank you for those of you who visited me yesterday, it was lovely to chat to you.

Village Site

As there isn't anyway to say this but I am sorry to have the break the news.....the road closure will be extended to 21 October. It was always our intention to remove the road closure at the end of this month however, sadly due to the ongoing exceptional ground conditions and in particular the strength of the rock it has frustratingly hindered our progress. I can assure you it is not a decision we have taken lightly as the rock strength is even baffling the professionals. More blastings will take place this week, we are hopeful we should have a way forward hopefully to day with a different blast pattern for the rest of the works. The normal H&S procedure will apply during the blasts.

The shaft at the pumping station is up and out of the ground at long last and is being surrounded in concrete. The Mill drainage works are ongoing and the drainage across the old pumping station is complete with the exception of the tie ins at the manhole and the outfall. The river crossing is complete and the temporary dam has now been removed. Rock in the road is still causing issues along with running sand but we are battling on. The seawall works are ongoing and will be about 80% complete by mid to end of October

Top Site

The drainage through the easement up the field to the Lagoons is staring on Monday next week and the bulk of the earthworks to the Lagoons are 80% complete

Thank you all once again for you patience and co-operation

Good Afternoon All

And what a beautiful day it is as well, I really enjoyed chatting to some of you this morning.

Village Site

As you know our main constraint has been the ground conditions from the beginning of this project. The rock has proved to be extremely strong and whilst conventional methods (i.e. pecking) was always the preferred option we have needed to proceed with rock blasting. 

We have successfully crossed the river now and I’m pleased to say without blasting however, the digging of the trenches towards the river have proved to be a little more problematic. So much so we now have decided to conduct some blasting this week and these will be conducted in two areas of the village, by The Mill and at the T-junction across from the road closure. We anticipate the latter end of this week for the Mill and next week at the junction.

There maybe up to two per day between 0900hrs and 1700hrs Tuesday to Thursday and between 0900hrs and 1300hrs on Friday. The site team will conduct a door knock prior, informing you of the exact blast time during which other H&S checks are conducted. Please listen for the air horn as this will trigger the imminent blasting and should you be indoors as a precaution we request you keep away from doors and windows. After the blast and all the H&S checks have been conducted we will sound another air horn a little longer in duration this time and this gives you the all clear.

As always your health and safety is paramount to us so we would encourage you to adopt the above during the blasting procedure. We still have a little way to go with this project and we will continue to assess the ground conditions again after every blasting to determine how we continue the rock movement, I will keep you informed.

The rings and plates are now being installed within the shaft and it's encouraging to see the shaft taking shape, it's some size. I'll get some photos to post, so watch this space.

I am so pleased to say we are now working on the sea wall and it's beginning to look fantastic although working with the tide can be a little tricky. I've attached some photos taken not by me or the team but by a local resident who expressed their delight in our work. Thank You, you know who you are!!!!

Top Site

Although last weeks rain hindered the work somewhat, the team are progressing well and the surplus topsoil is being carried away to be recycled, next week you notice more vehicle activity so please be that more vigilant if you are out and about.

We are so appreciative of your patience and understanding during this time.

Thank you

Good Afternoon,

Sorry I'm a little late this week.

Here is our update....

The work towards the old Pumping Station is progressing well although once again we have encountered more tough ground conditions that could lead to some rock blasting next week, but we will keep you informed. That said we have successfully crossed the river without blasting which can only be great news, so fingers crossed!!! The sea wall work will commence next week as well as the new pumping station. The rain hampered the progress on the top site this week but I'm sure the team will make that up.

Short and sweet this week, don't forget drop me a line or via the portal or pop in and see me on a Wednesday morning if you want to ask me any questions.

Good Morning

What a lovely morning it is.

I thought I would introduce you to Savannah Lawrence, one of our "year out" placements who joined the CS team a couple of weeks ago. If you see her please make her feel welcome as she will be moving on to other areas of the business soon.

This morning we have been trying to get the notice board back to some normality after it was sadly vandalised. Hope you find the information useful.

Lets talk about the work.....

Hope you have found the travelling through the village easier now the traffic lights have been removed. Some trial holes were conducted by the Old Mill last week, this was to determine the rock head location as we needed to do more pekking to cross the river.......great news we have now crossed the river!!!

At the top site.......

We are continuing to remove the soil and testing the ground conditions in preparation of the lagoons, this has proved to be time consuming, but we will continue on!

Thanks everyone, don't forget get in touch if you want to ask me any questions.

Good Evening,

Great news.......the traffic lights have been removed!!!!

We managed to get the tarmacing complete in time for the Bank Holiday weekend so they have been removed early.

Thank you all again for your patience during this work, we really do appreciate it.

Have a great Bank Holiday