Friday, August 27, 2010

Long Awaited Flood Prevention Works on Gilberdyke’s Sandholme Road Junction

It is great to see the East Riding of Yorkshire Council have commenced the work on the road drains at the junction of Gilberdyke’s Sandholme Road and the Main Road. This is to address the frequent pooling of water on the road during times of rainfall and the flood risk to the corner cottage. Both the Parish Council and myself have raised this frequently, and despite some work being done previously the problem was never really solved.

To offer a permanent solution a new channel drain is to be fitted along both sides of the road.

The west side channelling (to be installed in trench shown) is to be connected to what is the original Gilbert’s dyke which, is now culverted and running under the footpath .

The channel drain on the east is to discharge into the drain running under the main road, running into open dyke outside the Wards Hotel, which then continues as a piped section to join with the main village drainage near the Memorial Hall carpark. This section will hopefully receive some maintenance in the future.

5 comments:

John Jessop said...

Its wonderful that AT LAST something is being done about our "slap ole" on the corner of Sandholme and Main Roads. This has been an ongoing problem for many years and we saw many attempts at cleaning the grate but never until this summer did anyone investigate the pipe running away from the grate (no route through it). I'm hoping to have seen the last of the lake on the corner when it rains again.
The work on the other side of Sandholme Road is also essential but lets not lose sight of the state of the pipes taking water away from here to the 3 foot pipe under Scalby/Clementhorpe. From Flood Action Group research we discovered it should have been 450mm but is actually only approx 200mm and half full of road gravel sediment to boot. Once the Scalby/Chestnut critical dyke work is compete there is a lot of upstream sediment removal/cleaning to do. At least work is now going on.

Kev Owen said...

It's all well and good installing new drains. The trick is, once installed to keep them free draining, they have to be cleaned of rubbish/sediment etc. on a regular basis, otherwise the money spent installing them is wasted.
It could be argued that lot of previous flooding may have been largely prevented if only gullies, sinks and drain piping had been regularly cleared.

John Jessop said...

09.00 7th September. Following 23 (yes twenty-three) mm of rain last night there is no swimming pool at the corner of Main Road and Sandholme Road. The job is not yet finished off but the drainage channel is in and has proved its capability.
In response to Kev Owen - Drain gulley clearing was done regularly but never at any stage did anyone from highways seem to investigate clearing the pipe from the gulleys despite regular failure to remove the water from the corner. Needless to say the Parish Council will be "on their case" in future (and on many other cases relating to maintenance of drainage systems in the Parish). Your comments about regular maintenance being needed are absolutely correct.

Anonymous said...

we all know that as far as been "on the case of E.R.Y.C." the parish council,Evior. agency, and drainage board all had, or should I say didn't have, a hand in failing to maintain.
The idea that E.R.Y.C. will be either able or willing to return to maintain in the economic climate is remote.
We should have silt collection sumps, in order that the economic removal of silt brought by the flow of water can be uplifted by road side machines. It is vital that we control the maintence of the system, that needs to be economic and efficent to prevent silt moving up streem, there by clogging the whole system.

John Jessop said...

With a properly designed system and correct "falls" urban surface water drainage pipe systems are almost self cleansing, requiring very little maintenance. Only when some obstruction occurs or is placed in the way to reduce the velocity of flow, does silt settle out and excacerbate the problem (as contributed to in Gilberdykes case) by the undersized amateur piping in the critical section of Scalby/Chestnut drain running into the LOIDB maintained main dyke known as "Far Drain"). Sumps to collect the silt are unsatisfactory in the long term as they require regular emptying, (reminding us of the need to ensure future care and maintenance). To reduce the silting within the Gilberdyke village envelope, once the whole of the system is cleansed and correct falls into Far Drain are present, normal silt will be carried/flushed into Far Drain where the LOIDB do operate a desilting program (albeit sometimes under encouragement)
Installing collecting wells and pumps to ensure the rate of flow is kept up is a solution used in a small part of the YW system but requires significant capital expenditure followed by continuous maintenance and energy use (and operating cost). Wherever possible gravity should be used as the (free) driving force of the system.
As the drainage is important to the well being of the community the Parish Council WILL keep on the case of the relevant bodies.
Just to pick up on a final point from Anonymous - silt does not move upstream but rather downstream with the flow of water. However if a "dam" such as an elevated section of bed or a blockage is created in the drain silt will deposit behind this (upstream) to a greater extent than after it (downstream) until the level of the bed becomes level with the obstruction. This process will slowly but surely cause the level of the bed of the watercourse to rise right back through the system to its source (sometimes referred to as "backing up"). From personal inspection I can tell you that the 3 foot diameter concrete pipe under Scalby Lane and Clementhorpe Road has almost 50% of its available cross section blocked because it is half full of deposited silt.
Once the critical dyke and other drain works are complete natural flows might begin to clear the silt but it seems likely that mechanical flushing may be required if natural clearance does not achieve satisfactory improvement of that part of the system.