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Whaley Bridge Evacuated


furnessvale

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2 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

From the latest pictures on the BBC'S page it looks as though the condition of the wall has deteriorated further since that picture was taken. 

 

BBC News - Whaley Bridge dam collapse: Town evacuated over Toddbrook Reservoir fears
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49189955

You're right! 

 

The dam

 

300 million gallons of water apparently 

 

 

 

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Looks to me like water erosion underneath the sloping deck which must have been going on quite a while to shift all that missing aggregate.

 

The panel engineer is for the high jump I'd say unless he can prove he spotted it happening, reported upwards and his action advice was ignored. 

 

The most worrying thing is there might be similar erosion underneath across much more of the damn, and the deck is only holding up on a wing and a prayer. 

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Provided the reservoir doesn't obliterate the canal or town it's unavailability for water supply to the canal needn't mean closing the canal. The Peak/Macc summit has 3 other reservoirs which presumably have plenty of water at the moment?

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Just now, davem399 said:

They need a little Dutch boy ready with his finger to plug any leak.

No, they need to get stop planks in at locations on the other side of the aqueducts, and make sure tow paths are closed off, as boaters may not be aware, and not be stopped on their way home like they would be on the roads.

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1 minute ago, matty40s said:

No, they need to get stop planks in at locations on the other side of the aqueducts, and make sure tow paths are closed off, as boaters may not be aware, and not be stopped on their way home like they would be on the roads.

Yes, I'd be just as concerned about the aqueducts over the Goyt failing with all the extra water in it!

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1 hour ago, magpie patrick said:

"Yawn"

 

Repeat - it's a reservoir subject to the Reservoirs Act - annual inspection by a panel engineer, risk assessment in case of overflow, statutory maintenance regime, emergency plan if it does fail etc. These are not optional extras. 

You know like the banks are subject to independent expert scrutiny, to ensure they are well managed and not taking undue risks etc, but thinking back a few years, maybe that doesn’t help your case..........

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I do love the comment of the man in the video whose 'expert' opinion that the evacuation was just 'health and safety gone mad'. It sort of reminds me of the sailing adage of,' I'd rather be standing on a clifftop looking out to sea wishing I were out there rather than being out there in atrocious conditions wishing I was back on the clifftop'. How much warning does he think he'll get if the dam breaches? How would he spend the time that he had after such a warning? Far better to get the people out before any breach and be wrong rather than to leave them there and be wrong.

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34 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

From the latest pictures on the BBC'S page it looks as though the condition of the wall has deteriorated further since that picture was taken. 

OTOH they've somehow dropped the level far enough to stop water from flowing down the spillway, so the erosion from that source will have stopped.

 

As usual, the US does it bigger and better.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroville_Dam#/media/File:Oroville_Dam_spillway_damage_27_Feb_2017.jpg

 

MP

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We have 4 reservoirs  along side our boundary.

We sold off another 40 acres of land and the buyer built another reservoir (capacity 230,000,000 litres with 1.2 metres freeboard) with plans to build a second one the same size.

 

I must support @magpie patrick statements.

 

These reservoirs are inspected and a couple of years ago they were told to either shut (the original ones) down completely or introduce overflow pipes to increase the freeboard by reducing the fill level.

 

This really is a serious 'thing' and non-compliance would have resulted in legal action. Overflow pipes were cut into the walls and run into the dykes within a couple of weeks.

2 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

As usual, the US does it bigger and better.

You'll need to go a long way to beat Barnes Wallace ………………….

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I read on BBC that firefighters now have 10 off 7000 lpm pumps in operation, so a theoretical maximum of 70,000 litres can be removed every minute. Apart from ‘where to?’ does anyone know the surface area of the reservoir? How long will they have to pump to get the level down a couple of metres?

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2 hours ago, rupertbear said:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/reservoir-sealed-police-people-told-16681771

 

I'm not good at reading contours but it looks like it could go straight down the canal?

Yer it will, but it will take out the centre of the town on it's way through. 

 

I'm from New Mills, young (compared to you lot) and able bodied; if anyone happens across any mountain rescue calls for volunteers could they please link it up or message me.

I'm in Milton Keynes but will want to head up to assist

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13 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I read on BBC that firefighters now have 10 off 7000 lpm pumps in operation, so a theoretical maximum of 70,000 litres can be removed every minute. Apart from ‘where to?’ does anyone know the surface area of the reservoir? How long will they have to pump to get the level down a couple of metres?

According to Google mapping (drawing a rough line around it) the surface area is about 123,000 square metres. 1000 litres in a cubic metre so 123 million litres to drop it by one metre so about 30 hours of pumping per metre drop (roughly, unless my maths is crap:huh:)

 

It also shows the joy of working in metric, how many gallons in a cubic yard???:wacko: (168.179 for those interested, try and work that out in your head, as was done with the metric figures)

Edited by Wanderer Vagabond
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2 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

According to Google mapping (drawing a rough line around it) the surface area is about 123,000 square metres. 1000 litres in a cubic metre so 123 million litres to drop it by one metre so about 30 hours of pumping per metre drop (roughly, unless my maths is crap:huh:)

Thanks. Yeah, that looks about right. It also gels with their estimation that they’ll probably be pumping right through the weekend. 

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I'm surprised by how thin the concrete is. Also cant see any rebar reinforcing the dam slabs and side wall. Seems the bank is what holds the water back with little in the way of concrete. I suspect the right wall separated from the dam concrete as no reinforcing and water got underneath through the crack. Hope they get it drained in time and everyone is safe.

 

James.

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Notice Alert

Intersection of:

Lock 1 to Lock 16 on Peak Forest Canal

and

Lock 12 to Lock 1 on Macclesfield Canal

Thursday 1 August 2019 18:00 until further notice

Type: Navigation Closure 
Reason: Water resources


 

Original message:

 

Following the heavy rainfall which has caused widespread problems across the North West, we’re currently working with local agencies to manage the potential risks arising from damage to the spillway at Toddbrook Reservoir which feeds the Peak Forest Canal. Our engineers are on site assessing the scale of the damage and over the next few hours we will be doing all we can to draw down water from the reservoir in a controlled way to reduce the risk to surrounding communities 

In the meantime we have taken the decision to close the Marple flight on the Peak Forest canal and the Bosley flight on the Macclesfield canal whilst we manage the potential risks.  The emergency services are taking every precaution including evacuating local properties and closing local roads to maintain public safety. If you are boating in this area please take every precaution.

We will provide a further update tomorrow morning.

 

 

You can view this notice and its map online here:
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/15840/marple-flight-peak-forest-canal-and-bosley-flight-macclesfield-canal

You can find all notices at the url below:
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices


Please do not reply to the email. It has been automatically generated.

To unsubscribe from this service please go to: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/my-trust/notices and uncheck the relevant box.

open.php?u=10513099&id=eae1f03fb3024a02a84e9010c96d3b4b







 
Edited by frangar
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