Pike Lock stop planks
Pike Lock stop planks
by: Andy P.
Jon P’s team had removed the first stop plank so the next job was for Matthew to attach handles to the rest of the planks.
Then attach ropes at either end. Persuade as many people as possible to lift, wriggle, push and heave one end so it sits on the coping stones. These are seriously heavy oak? planks and much taller than the normal ones. So the mini digger was brought into use to save the various parts of our anatomy.
As this was successful the digger was then used to lift the planks up and out, but manual intervention was still required.
The king post girder in the middle is a loose fit-no, it is concreted in. Another job.
As an experiment the digger was used to dig out as much silt as could be reached. Unfortunately not very much. So plan B is needed for the next week. An army of people with shovels and a hired dumper to move the amount of silt so as to give us access to the stop plank grooves and wing walls.
With all the planks now removed, we carefully approached the silt cliff face in order to dig some channels to help drain the water within the silt as well as the small seepings past the dam sides. A pretty Pike Lock waterfall developed.
We also have now got our own stalactite forming.
A very busy period followed. Duncan repairing the other ladder recess. Steve drilling endless holes for the tie rods to support the outer wall. Matthew cutting and trimming the last overhanging coping stone. Jon and Richard mixing cement and back filling the ladder recess.
Chris and Steve helped us by moving the old rubble from the bank to the digger ramp on the other side of the bridge. They also swapped and extended the pump pipework to drain the lock back over the dam. A very good all round joint team effort.
