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Washout at Dawlish


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Developers are a curse in our town we are under siege on every boundary and our council does nothing ,the houses at Dawlish surely must be stopped as that cliff is unstable I would not want to live there.But they will be sold to people who want the country life and sea view from London or Birmingham and they wont know what awaits them perhaps a sign should be put up saying YOU ARE ALL DOOMED.Glad that Mrs Granite Chops is coming on okay hope that recovery is qick.

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Just watching Countryfile on BBC. They just had an article on Dawlish, one of the houses affected apparently belongs to one of their cameramen who took the film of the washout from his bedroom window.

looked to be the balcony that the network rail camera is fitted to
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  • RMweb Gold

I don't keep up to date on this thread, but am well aware that Granitechops makes a major factual contribution, despite serious disability. I certainly am glad to hear that his lady is recovering well.

 

Developers and councils have a common goal, actually. In a country that has a perpetual housing shortage (EU immigration etc hasn't really made a lot of difference, either, as it was always the case), Central Government no doubt sets targets for new homes. Thus the councillors are between a rock and hard place - if that isn't inappropriate in this context!

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  • RMweb Gold

It would be interesting to know who owns the cliffs. The landowner above or NR below. The GWR boundary markers are normally three or so metres away from the railway line.

 

Because we seem to be contesting it, I doubt that NR owns the land where these edifices are proposed, although we should own the cliffs to the top of the actual slopes.

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  • RMweb Gold

Building on “Flood Plains” in Essex is yet another example.

 

I know England is a small crowded country but that cliffside looks particularly prone to erosion, more so when any vegetation is further removed.

 

Best, Pete.

 

Edited: To cover my idiocy that England is an island....

Lets hope that prospective buyers check how much their insurance will be and that it covers erosion before they decide to buy!

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I'm not sure how it will be resolved, except I can see the lawyers making most out of it. If the railway owns the cliff, and do not keep it stable, then when the cliff collapses, then the guy who owns the land at the top loses some of his property. If the land at the top was just low grade agricultural land, then the cheapest option would be for the railway to buy that land too. If the landowner at the top owns the cliff, and it collapses then he will be liable to any damage to railway. If the land at the top is developed to any extent, then access to get to the cliff top for any future repairs will be restricted. 

 

How much of the cliff needs to be removed (by natural or other means) before it becomes completely stable? is that a 45 deg slope? Then that new distance, less a safety margin is the realistic boundary of the area for development at the top, whoever owns the land or cliff.

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  • RMweb Gold

I don't know about the angle of the slope - which probably isn't far off where it should be - but the key thing is the effect of rainwater on the material which forms it.  Add it some half baked cheapskate builder who will probably put the soakaways for rainwater round that side and I think we can look forward to future mud-slides.  Of course what someone ought to ask the local council (who are seemingly in favour of the plan) is how much the developers will be giving sorry, 'contributing' to them as a Section 106 payment?

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Observed on Dawlish Beach cam, at 12:30 today a barge arrived at the cranes with at least one concrete L section on.

 

Not sure I am allowed to do a screen print of this site?

 

Why are they being brought by barge, why not overnight on the Down line to Dawlish?

 

:)

Perhaps because they need daylight to work on them? If you brought them in by rail overnight, you'd either have to have teams working overnight, not ideal given overnight temperatures, or double-handle them. I suspect you'd also have to have a temporary block on both lines, as there is a risk of the load fouling the adjacent track during unloading, especially with the winds forecast. There was an incident near Birmingham a few years ago, where a crane briefly fouled an adjacent track, not under possession, and damaged a DMU. Since then, such activities have been frowned on.

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  • RMweb Gold

Observed on Dawlish Beach cam, at 12:30 today a barge arrived at the cranes with at least one concrete L section on.

 

Not sure I am allowed to do a screen print of this site?

 

Why are they being brought by barge, why not overnight on the Down line to Dawlish?

 

:)

 

..paper work!

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  • RMweb Gold

Perhaps because they need daylight to work on them? If you brought them in by rail overnight, you'd either have to have teams working overnight, not ideal given overnight temperatures, or double-handle them. I suspect you'd also have to have a temporary block on both lines, as there is a risk of the load fouling the adjacent track during unloading, especially with the winds forecast. There was an incident near Birmingham a few years ago, where a crane briefly fouled an adjacent track, not under possession, and damaged a DMU. Since then, such activities have been frowned on.

Exactly right. We've looked long and hard into this, and a rail delivery option simply isn't viable, even overnight the opportunities for both roads to be blocked are very limited, in terms of achieving some meaningful work outputs. Just blocking one road wouldn't work, for the reasons already stated, the crane operations would foul the open line, and during the daytime the Up (Reversible) line can't carry all the traffic.

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