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Railway bridge repairs under way to link Gloucestershire canals


Alan de Enfield

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1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

I know some one who made a job out of doing bat surveys prior to construction work. Another creature under legal protection.

 

 

We had 5 factories spread across a large industrial estate on the edge of Manchester, the estate dated back to the 1930's and the units were not ideal for modern production, add in the problems of moving 'stuff' between 5 units and we decided it was time for a new factory. There was derelict ground listed as 'industrial' on the edge of the industrial estate which was used by druggies (ground littered with syringes), with a small 'rain water pond' and a single tree in the middle of the site.

 

It took 5 years from appllying for planning permission to getting it granted.

Newts were not a problem.

The problem was 'bats'.

 

There was no evidence of bats on the site, but the bat surveyor said that the tree was an ideal resting place if they were 'on their way back home after a heavy night and needed to stop off and have a sleep. We had to have a 'bat monitor' on site every night for a year to prove the tree was not used.

 

In the meantime Warringtom LA offered us a brand new factory, ready built with good motorway access and no rates for 5 years and a subsidised rent.

It would have caused huge problems for our employees, 80% of whom were in the "10 year club" and many who actually in the "20 year club" so we declined and (eventually) built our own factory on the 'bat-land'.

 

On a slightly different scale, the next village to us (in Wales) had a developer who was wanting to build on a field on the outskirts of the village, but it was found during the enquiry that there were signs of Otters living in the stream, so an otter watch was set up.

After several weeks it became apparent that it was a rather unique Otter as the only footprints identified were from a single leg (front right) no one could work out how a one-legged Otter could survive in the wild.

 

Planning was granted.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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1 hour ago, MtB said:

I see eleven large cast concrete slabs towards the right of Tim's last photo. I wonder what they are gonna be used for. 

 

I can't imagine they made them for fun and intend just chucking them.

 

 

Those L-shaped pieces? I agree with Archie. They are to be inserted into the bridge opening and approaches to support the towpath. But not just yet - the current priority will be to get the railway open.

The L-shape can be seen on this drawing from the CCT website.

ccip_ocean_rail_bridge_v1.jpg

Edited by David Mack
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