Thursday 12 November 2020

Running out of road!

 


Last week, this tree had had a noticable lean on it, and following some more heavy rain, the roots had nothing to hold firm to and it ended up across the river.  With heavy rain forecast for this weekend, this situation couldn't be allowed to continue as the tree would snag any passing branches or trees and cause a real log jam in the river.  Various people phoned up to report it (and the collapsing road too) and today a local firm (Extreme Tree Services) turned up to remove the tree, and others lining the river bank and looking set to follow it.


However, this is the amount of undercutting below the lane and there has been a crease down the middle of the lane for quite some while - not sorted out by recent roadworks which simply tarmacced over the top!  It soon came back, and with attitude.


The lane is now reduced to about 3/4 of its width and is too dangerous to use.  I imagine it will probably be a couple of years before it is shored up and usable again - jobs like this never seem to be done quickly hereabouts.


Today was another Trip to the Tip day, and Tam and I got the better of an unwieldy mattress, and a very recalcitrant bicycle (why is the scrap metal container the highest one there by a long way?!)  More bits of plastic tubing and old drain pipes went to be melted down, and the Council will be richer for some more metal bits too.  

    This afternoon we went to the British Heart Foundation and the YMCA Charity shops and got rid of various things - dvd player, tv stand, dvd rack, small bookcase etc and some clothing and yet another box of books.  Progress.

    Tomorrow, bright and very early, an electrician is coming to check our electrics for our buyer (who wants a certificate) and then Keith and I have a dental check - our first for about a year.  Keith has been during this time, when a molar broke in half, but that meant an extraction.  Hoping nothing needs doing now as only temporary fillings are being done - or extractions.

    Off to catch up with another episode of Mountain Men.  We're trying to watch everything we have recorded from Sky before we move and possibly lose the lot.

14 comments:

  1. Amazing how that lane is hanging on with nothing underneath. It will need metal piling I should think - that's the sort of job that Col used to supervise when he was a Highways Bridge inspector although it was usually just a ditch and not a huge fast flowing river!

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    1. Just what Tam was saying today. They have cut down all the trees along there now - it looks so bare and strange - and the road is fenced off with metal small-squared barrier so you can't even walk past (you might squeeze by, if determined!) It will be underpinned, concreted and have a substantial metal barrier in the end, but that is probably a couple of years off.

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  2. Wow that lane is certainly looking dangerous, hopefully they will do something about it quickly. So glad you are able to get rid of your rubbish some areas at the moment you have to book appointments. Hope all goes well with the electrician, your buyers are very thorough. Enjoy your programme, you deserve a break.

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    1. It's all sorted and lane closed off now.

      We have to book an appt. at the Tip, and show the email we have printed off, and proof of ID.

      The electrician was a lovely chap - house just needs an up to date fuse box now, which we expected anyway.

      I could have done with staying in bed this morning as awake (again!) in the night, but electrician due at 8 a.m. so had to set the alarm and be up at 7.

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  3. You seem to be doing really well with your clearouts. I didn't realise moving house was such a hassle but it will be worth it in the end.

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    1. RR - if you are even VAGUELY thinking about moving house, start the clear out N.O.W.!!! Oh my goodness, I didn't know we had so much "stuff" and Keith had definitely been holding out on me!! We have taken four BIG carfuls (we have a Nissan NV200) so far and now there is the rest of a bed to go next week as it won't fix back together again (broken).

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  4. That is quite the undercut. I hope they get it fixed faster than you think, that is dangerous to say the least.

    God bless.

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    1. Well, it's all shut off with metal link panels, but you could squeeze past them if you wanted to walk up the valley (which we probably will). It took them about two years to mend the bridge when a central stancheon was taken out in a flood, so we're not holding our breath!

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  5. We lost access to a nearby road earlier this summer after getting 10" of rain in short order from a passing tropical storm. Unfortunately it was a much used road and the water had taken out a large cross-section next to a small bridge. However, the county did repair it though it took several months. The projected date had been for six months so grateful that they beat it. For many people, it required more than a 10 mile detour to access a main road and put far too many folks on our winding, hilly back roads.

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    1. Gosh, you must have been glad when you got your road back in action. There is a longer loop round from ours, and it only inconveniences a few folk who live the other side of the closed bit and adds a mile to their journey.

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  6. Wow that road......that is some serious undercutting! It looks like many of the roads did round here after Storm Desmond.

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    1. It's been "going" for a while - there has been a dropped crack down the middle for a couple of years. The bank started to drop away seriously back in the spring, but now it's gone completely.

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  7. Do you find yourself wondering why you felt the need to save this or that. It must have felt important at one point...

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    1. Some things of Keith's I could see he'd forgotten ever having, and other bit had gotten shoved out of sight, others were deemed "just in case" bits. My books, well I had a big house and didn't need to cull them (although about 15 boxes went in summer 2019!) Bits of useful material, well, they might have been used in a quilt, but in the end I only kept the patterns/colours I really wanted to use.

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