Dawlish - permanent resilience work - ongoing discussions

[whole diary]

[CyclingSid]

Possibly something to do with https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/target-area/113WACT1B

[Thatcham Crossing]

Interesting to compare the views on the webcams this morning - not too much water coming over onto the tracks on the Blenheim cam (where the wall has been rebuilt), a lot more coming over on the San Remo (where it hasn't).

[grahame]

..and yet at the slightest hint of a bit of a blow, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), are now taking  the same position of XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)), and get scared of running a service.
Nothing running 05.30 - 08.30 Wednesday 16/12

Webcam from this morning -  https://www.facebook.com/dawlishbeach/videos/4225477847465645

Interesting to compare the views on the webcams this morning - not too much water coming over onto the tracks on the Blenheim cam (where the wall has been rebuilt), a lot more coming over on the San Remo (where it hasn't).

Those pics are San Remo

[grahame]

A very interest morning at Exeter - snapshot from http://www.mrug.org.uk/exd.html

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Is "the sea flooding the railway" the new way of describing heavy spray?  The webcams showed plenty of spray, but I didn't see any flooding unless this was elsewhere on the line.

I suppose that saying a train is cancelled because of "flooding" may be more acceptable to disgruntled passengers than saying it's because of "spray". And of course flooding implies blame on NR^» (Network Rail - home page) (for not having flood-resilient track), and spray implies blame on the train operator (for not having spray-resilient trains). 

[IndustryInsider]

On a separate but related note, the ?Dawlish Special Mode?, aimed at improving engine performance when hit by waves on the Class 802 fleet, is just in the process of being enabled.

[paul7575]

There?s another short video just been uploaded including some views taken from above Boat Cove:
https://youtu.be/aUplFe5YXLI

Shows the ?wave-walker? raised above it all, and IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) shows the Marine Parade section of the sea wall working well.  It isn?t actually supposed to ?waterproof? the railway, just said to reduce the effects by up to 90%.  At about 2 min 15 secs in there?s some lumpy stuff...

Paul

[a-driver]

On a separate but related note, the ?Dawlish Special Mode?, aimed at improving engine performance when hit by waves on the Class 802 fleet, is just in the process of being enabled.

Been enabled and been proven to not work.  One got stuck for just over 2 hours recently.  The ?Dawlish Special Mode? just gives the driver more attempts at restarting the engines.

[IndustryInsider]

I thought I?d read a notice saying the 9-car fleet were about to be enabled, but I misread it.  It?s the 9-car Class 800 fleet.  The 802 fleet has indeed already had it enabled.  Sadly, I don?t get down to Dawlish much. 

[bobm]

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/pieces-new-dawlish-sea-wall-4812918

Pieces from new Dawlish Sea Wall falling into sea

Less than three months after it was unveiled, Network Rail are investigating a problem with the new ?80m Dawlish sea wall.

The sea wall, which is designed to protect the Great Western mainline which runs adjacent to it, was built to prevent a repeat of an incident in 2014 where the collapse of the sea wall severed the railway line causing months of misery for commuters.

However, just months after the completed phase one of the project was unveiled in September by Minister of State for Transport, Chris Heaton-Harris, residents have reported seeing black material coming detached from the sea wall into the water below, raising concerns for the safety of the structure in addition to the environmental impact of the material ending up in the sea.

Continues in the link...

[paul7575]

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/pieces-new-dawlish-sea-wall-4812918

Pieces from new Dawlish Sea Wall falling into sea

Less than three months after it was unveiled, Network Rail are investigating a problem with the new ?80m Dawlish sea wall.

The sea wall, which is designed to protect the Great Western mainline which runs adjacent to it, was built to prevent a repeat of an incident in 2014 where the collapse of the sea wall severed the railway line causing months of misery for commuters.

However, just months after the completed phase one of the project was unveiled in September by Minister of State for Transport, Chris Heaton-Harris, residents have reported seeing black material coming detached from the sea wall into the water below, raising concerns for the safety of the structure in addition to the environmental impact of the material ending up in the sea.

Continues in the link...

Mountain out of a molehill I suggest.  Maybe they should have used Gripfill instead of neoprene.  But knowing how the wall is stitched together by thousands of tonnes of concrete I doubt it?s going to fail...

[stuving]

That's foam rubber to you and me. Presumably they need to use a size larger of the foam strip, so it has to be squeezed harder to go in and and will stay put.

[grahame]

Can you believe it's seven YEARS since our busiest day on the forum as the railway line at Dawlish was destroyed.   How are we doing in making sure that "it can never happen again", where that question might be looked at locally for Exeter to Newton Abbot travel, or long distance for London to Plymouth passengers?

From Business Live

It is seven years since it was swept into the sea overnight on February 4 and 5, 2014.

Network Rail is forging ahead with the second phase of elevating the sea wall in a huge engineering feat involving Europe's only 'wavewalker' barge to protect the line from the sea for the next 100 years.

Construction of this section of the £80 million upgrade will take around two years to complete and follows years of detailed studies, designs and joint working between world-leading marine, coastal and railway engineering experts.

But the other part of the wider scheme which involves moving the line 'out to sea', claiming much of Holcombe beach, to protect the line from cliff falls have been paused in the face of huge opposition, led by the Save Teignmouth Beach campaign.

And there are fears that it will be at least another seven years until that crucial phase of work begins.

The line is the only rail route west of Exeter and is a vital for economic growth and reliable services into the whole of the South West.

Tudor Evans, leader of Plymouth City Council, said: "We need a fast resilient railway and we are not even half way to securing one.

"At the time when all the talk in Government is all about HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) what can we do to get the Government to listen to us?

"I cannot think of another city or region of our size in the country that the government would dare treat like this.

"My call is for our MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) to make some demands like their counterparts elsewhere are doing. We need them to put on the pressure, we need urgency to make sure our message is heard."

[paul7575]

Amazing.  We complain about lack of progress, but we also seem to require that local residents are almost able to veto any change. 

Can’t have it both ways...

Paul

PS - didn’t we hope to keep Dawlish resilience discussion here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=22771.0

[infoman]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) spotlight local news at 06:25am on (this) Friday morning reporting on things happening at Dawlish.

Should be on again during friday 13:30pm, 18:30pm and 22:30pm.

Local news is available for TWENTY FOUR HOURS ONLY on the i-player thingy.