Land Slip - Easenhall Cutting, Brinklow, Oxford Canal

[john.k]

I once did a job on  a new industrial estate as wet as that ......had to clean up around a mile long concrete drain ,as large as a canal..............the weight of the dozer caused the sodden soil to heave and change the angle of the concrete panels to more vertical ........the main contractor was going to sue me ........there was a  cyclone ,and all the concrete panels  were washed away by floodwater  ,ending up a half a mile away ..................grandmother  used to say   " its a crook flood bring nobody any firewood. "

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Isn't this the same bod who posted that 30 minute video of the recovery of the sunken boat on the Soar, which turned out not to contain any footage of the actual recovery?

 

 

 

 

No, this is the same bod that posted the original footage of the slip 

[David Mack]

7 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

No, this is the same bod that posted the original footage of the slip 

With a long rant from Tony Dunkley in the comments!

[ditchcrawler]

51 minutes ago, David Mack said:

With a long rant from Tony Dunkley in the comments!

That I wouldn't know

[Kendorr]

Nice short video showing the task ahead!

 

 

[Hudds Lad]

21 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

That I wouldn't know

 

"Landslips of similar proportions to the one in the Brinklow Cutting have been commonplace, to my personal knowledge, for at least the last 60 years. Less so the further back in time you go, . . mainly because the trees were smaller back then, and so applied less rotating/slipping force to the areas of the cutting sides around the roots.

 

C&RT, and their equally clueless contractors, are making their expected customary long drawn out song and dance, and some very serious mistakes, over getting the canal open to boat traffic again following this relatively minor, and if you know how, comparatively easy to deal with landslip.

 

In the days when the North Oxford still saw regular commercial traffic, . . and was maintained and run by British Waterways, an organisation a bit more akin to a real navigation authority than the clowns in charge these days, . . a slip such as the present one in Brinklow Cutting would generally delay traffic for no more than around half a day at most.

 

There's a right way and a wrong way to deal with slips like this present one in the Brinklow Cutting. A lot of useful lessons in doing it the right way were learned from mistakes made with the Saddington Slip many years earlier, . . which, going from what I recall being told, from the early 1960's through to the early 1970's, by other working and ex-boatmen, BWB lengthsmen, other British Waterways company men, the two BWB Section/Length Foremen, and BWB's Leicester Section Inspector, Matt Mortimer, . . first began causing really serious recurring problems in the late 1930's or early 1940's.

 

Removing too much slip material/spoil from the navigation channel at the site of a landslip too soon after the slip, combined with also removing the main trunks and root systems from where they all finish up immediately after a slip, is a really big mistake, . . and almost invariably leads to immediate, and usually continuous, further slippage and movement.

 

The weight/mass of the main parts of the fallen trees must, initially, be repositioned only as much as necessary, ie. only what is needed in order to open up a navigation channel past the slip site of minimal width and depth. Leaving as much as possible of the slip material/spoil, . . plus most of the weight/bulk of the fallen trees, all in situ at first has the effect of allowing the slip to stabilize itself to the greatest possible extent, . . whilst navigation resumes via a short length of minimal depth/width channel through the slip site.

 

This way of dealing with slips such as this leaves the whole site/area still in a mess that all needs clearing up afterwards, . . but it works, it's practical, it's proven and above all, it's safe, both for those working on site, and the boats and the people aboard passing through after re-opening, . . and it gets the navigation open again in a matter of hours. The cutting up and removal of the trees already done in Brinklow Cutting is absolutely the wrong way to go about this. All that has been achieved by what's been done so far, and what is proposed next, is to turn the possibility of further slippage at the same spot into what amounts to almost an absolute certainty.

 

What should, and what WOULD, be happening under a responsible and competent navigation authority, is that the navigation is re-opened by the means described above, with appropriate signage clearly warning of the serious ground instability throughout the whole length of the cutting, . . and the consequential very high risk of further similar slips occuring, at ANY time and without ANY warning. An urgent program of work to reduce or eliminate the massive destabilizing forces from the trees on the sides of the cutting by means of extensive lopping, or removal of all the largest/heaviest overhanging trees along the whole length of the cutting, MUST then commence as a matter of urgency, and without any delay whatsoever.

 

Pleasure boaters who use, have used, or intend to use the North Oxford in the future should NOT be under any illusions. Years of joint BWB/C&RT neglect of essential tree maintenance, lopping, and growth/size control, has left Brinklow Cutting in a very dangerous state, . . along its entire length. With the high number of neglected and now very much oversized, much too weighty, overhanging trees, along the length of the cutting on both sides of the canal, and the permanently wet unstable ground they're all standing and growing in, . . it is potentially a very dangerous place to be, whether walking through or boating through, . . irrespective of how much recent rainfall there may or may not have been.

 

If nothing is done about all the oversized, overhanging trees that haven't yet fallen across the cutting, but could do without warning at any time, they're just going to keep coming down, . . and bringing more sizeable, potentially very dangerous, landslips full of yet more honking great overgrown trees down with them, . . with ever increasing regularity !

 

The navigation should have been re-opened to boat traffic in the way described above, . . moving and clearing the absolute minimum of slip material and tree debris from only the navigation channel itself. Everything on the towpath should have been left temporarily undisturbed, . . left to settle and naturally stabilise itself, to whatever extent it can, under the influence of gravity and its own bulk/mass and weight.

 

Top priority MUST then be given over IMMEDIATELY to - again, as described above - lopping and/or felling, as necessary, all of those very much oversized, much too weighty, overhanging trees, along the length of the cutting on both sides of the canal. They are all standing and growing in permanently wet unstable ground, and any or all of them could start moving at any time, without warning, triggering more landslips when they do.

 

Put simply and plainly, . . C&RT are getting this very wrong, . . top priority should, and must, be the prevention of further landslips, . . NOT the cosmetic clearing and tidying up of this one, . . or re-opening the towpath, . . or dredging the navigation channel back to its full width and depth."

 

That one?

[john.k]

Despite the rant,trees do have a powerful dewatering effect on soil,and do prevent erosion which would fill the waterway in a slower way than a slip,but just as surely.............and seemingly the greens havent latched onto extensive tree cutting as a cause ...yet...........also note the slip has left a near vertical face with a fence on top.

Edited February 26 by john.k

[Mike Tee]

The fence is holding the rest of England from slipping into the cut (or what was the cut).

[jonesthenuke]

10 hours ago, john.k said:

Despite the rant,trees do have a powerful dewatering effect on soil,and do prevent erosion which would fill the waterway in a slower way than a slip,but just as surely.............and seemingly the greens havent latched onto extensive tree cutting as a cause ...yet...........also note the slip has left a near vertical face with a fence on top.

Trees do not dewater in the winter when they are not growing so I suggest the effect of trees is minimal at best.

Large trees are not required to stabilise the bank, small trees and bushes would do.

[ditchcrawler]

In Norfolk they use to plant willow trees along the side of the road where it crossed marshland, These were pollarded every 2 to 3 years, work for the farm labourers during the winter months. I was told it was because their root system stabilised the ground the roads were built on. Today lots have died and not been replaced, its quite a cost to employ contractors to pollard them plus the disruption to what are now busy roads 

[jonesthenuke]

45 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

In Norfolk they use to plant willow trees along the side of the road where it crossed marshland, These were pollarded every 2 to 3 years, work for the farm labourers during the winter months. I was told it was because their root system stabilised the ground the roads were built on. Today lots have died and not been replaced, its quite a cost to employ contractors to pollard them plus the disruption to what are now busy roads 

Similarly on Romney marsh. The roads have ditches along side and the practice was to plant in the ditch sides and bottom, however this is on a far smaller scale than a canal cutting and is this not a model for growing trees in massive cuttings. In recent decades farmers on the Marsh have grubbed out trees and filled in roadside ditches to gain more farmland. Now they complain that the fields get waterlogged and flood in heavy rain such as occurred this week.

Edited February 27 by jonesthenuke
typos

[ditchcrawler]

6 hours ago, jonesthenuke said:

Similarly on Romney marsh. The roads have ditches along side and the practice was to plant in the ditch sides and bottom, however this is on a far smaller scale than a canal cutting and is this not a model for growing trees in massive cuttings. In recent decades farmers on the Marsh have grubbed out trees and filled in roadside ditches to gain more farmland. Now they complain that the fields get waterlogged and flood in heavy rain such as occurred this week.

As my mate always use to say when we hit a wet bit of marsh, They didn't dig all those dykes with spades because they wanted something to do. Some how todays farmers do get that idea. just use a tractor with crawlers or bigger tyres 

[Ex Brummie]

This canal, along with the Shroppie, has a long history of such landslips. I pretty sure that all canals with high cuttings suffer the same. I do wonder as I pass these along the Shroppie, how the unchecked growth of some very large trees is affecting the stability of the cutting, when you see the crazy angles that they are leaning. I just hope they will never fall as I pass.

[Tracy D'arth]

I tried to get an arrangement going between a split timber fuel supplier who had all the winches and equipment to remove the trees in canal cuttings which are threatening the cutting stability at places like Woodseaves, and The Canal & River Trust.

He was willing to go in and remove trees for nothing, just the timber. All he needed from C&RT was the use of a couple of dumb hoppers.

C&RT were so negative and obstructive that he gave up the idea.

Now daily we have large trees falling into the cut and destabilising the cuttings and embankments and C&RT have no plans to control the tree growth or the wherewithal to remove the trees, relying on expensive contractors to do the work and charge. 

[Ronaldo47]

Perhaps CRT are worried about the possible cost of an environmental assessment requiring them providing a corresponding number of trees to compensate for the ones they cut down?

 

I seem to recall that, when Crossrail were planning to site a depot at some long-disused sidings where the rails were still in situ,  although hidden by abundant sapling growth, an environmental assessment would have required them to create a corresponding area for wildlife had they cleared the site. Rather like the stretches of substitute abandoned canal that have had to be provided for wildlife on the restored Monty.  In the event they built their depot elsewhere and the saplings had become small trees the last time I went that way.  

Edited February 27 by Ronaldo47
typos

[MtB]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo47 said:

Perhaps CRT are worried about the possible cost of an environmental assessment requiring them providing a corresponding number of trees to compensate for the ones they cut down?

 

I seem to recall that, when Crossrail were planning to site a depot at some long-disused sidings where the rails were still in situ,  although hidden by abundant sapling growth, an environmental assessment would have required them to create a corresponding area for wildlife had they cleared the site. Rather like the stretches of substitute abandoned canal that have had to be provided for wildlife on the restored Monty.  In the event they built their depot elsewhere and the saplings had become small trees the last time I went that way.  

 

This is exactly the sort of thing that makes me despair of the way we gold plate everything we do here in the UK. Newt and bat surveys are another. Newt fences seem to be put up for a year in advance of works around here and a bloke visits every day to check for rare newts inside the fence and chuck them all out. Insane expense for such a common creature. Similarly for bats. The pesky things infest almost every church and can be seen every summer evening flying up and down canals (and my garden), yet they are protected as supposedly dead rare and must not be disturbed in any way.

 

 

[john.k]

The greens here have discovered 'microbats'.....and consequently I cannot cut down a dead tree ,even if its threatening to fall on my house .

[ditchcrawler]

I dont know if this is a very poor video of my mobile connection 

 

[Hudds Lad]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

I dont know if this is a very poor video of my mobile connection 

 

It's not you, it's only 360p, so that's like a third of HD  

[john.k]

removing fallen vegetation.............why dont they burn it on site ?

[Captain Pegg]

1 hour ago, john.k said:

removing fallen vegetation.............why dont they burn it on site ?

CRTs vegetation control contracts probably forbid it. There’s plenty of stuff that fire could spread to including the ground itself if the slope is dressed with ash, which is common at least on embankments.

[BEngo]

Not to mention the  eco-warriors who will turn up protesting about the carbon and particulates being released into the air.

 

N

[john.k]

There s a funny thing......burn it and there is CO2................mulch the wood and it decays slowly  releasing methane ,a greenhouse gas 10 times worse than CO2 

[Mike Tee]

It may well still get burned but in a more useful way.

[MtB]

23 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I dont know if this is a very poor video of my mobile connection 

 

 

 

Never mind the video quality, its the first video I've seen that gives a clear impression of the size and scale of the landslip. Thanks for posting.