Monday, 2 May 2011

Building a culvert in the woods

Today I put in a culvert in the wood with my Dad's help. It's in the track to Sweep Wood, at a spot where a seasonal stream flows across the path, which in the past has made it difficult to get past there on foot sometimes, and doesn't help when we need to drive in there to collect logs either.

We started by digging a trench for the pipe I'd bought:

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Then where it crosses the tyre tracks, we dug out a pit on either side:
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In each pit we put some bricks stacked up, with other rubble round them:
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then laid reinforced concrete slabs over the top:
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At each side is a small retaining structure made of bricks:
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and on top of the bricks we put some heavy Alder logs to hold the soil back:
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On the upstream side there's also a sump, to collect silt:
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Here it is all covered over, and ready to walk and drive over:
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While we were there, we also cut a drainage channel through the bank at the side, next to where a lot of water collected in the winter:
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and used the soil from that to raise the level of the lowest part of the ride a little bit:
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Hopefully these two changes will make the path easier for us to use, and for all the walkers using the footpath as well.

We did one other little job while we were there - cutting some slices out of one the the Sycamores we felled in January:
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My Dad's going to take them and hopefully make small tables from them...

Mike

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