Wendover Arm Trust Working Party News, October 2013
September Working Party
Again, thanks to good weather the target of another 20 metres of lining was completed.
On the Sunday 8th another Open Day was held at St Mary’s Church, Drayton Beauchamp. Parties of visitors were taken along the towpath to our work site where we were able to explain and demonstrate our work in progress.
October Working Party
Thanks to the weather holding up another 20 metres of canal lining completed. The bank lining for Stage 2 is now complete, only 30 metres of bed lining need to be finished before Stage 2 is 100% complete.
You will see from the progress report in this newsletter that Stage 2 has cost £438 per metre exclusive of overheads. Stage 1 cost £400 per metre; the increase is mainly due to the much slower progress in Stage 2 because of bad weather conditions. Time spent pumping out water is not real progress nor is working in up to a foot of mud and water!
November/December Working Parties
Stage 2 will be completed over the first few days in November and relining will then carry on in Stage 3 until we reach Bridge 4A, the location of the next bund for re-watering 450 metres, over ¼ mile, making a total of 770 metres re-watered as well as two footbridges constructed by the Trust’s restoration volunteers since 2005.
Theft of Bench Plaques
The Trust’s Restoration Committee have researched possible replacement plaques and have proposed a composite plaque of hard plastic between two layers of aluminium with powder coated lettering. It has bevelled edges and can be secured with high security stainless steel screws.
Peter Winter
We are sorry to see the departure of Peter Winter who is moving home. He has been Chairman of IWA Chiltern Branch and one of our regular restoration volunteers for several years. Many thanks for your hard work Peter. Your plaque will ensure that you are not forgotten.
6-monthly Progress Report
The final cost of Stage 2 is shown as £153,178 but is based on the estimated cost of the last 30 metres of bed lining and may be subject to minor correction when all the invoices are to hand.
We have now ‘honed up’ our re-lining process and, thanks to suggestions from volunteers, can complete 20 metres of lining or 40 metres of pipe capping in one working party. There are some 900 metres of pipe capping required and 1400 metres of lining to reach the bund at Little Tring.
On this basis there are at least 93 months/8 years of work plus delays due to bad weather to complete Phase II. This indicates completion of Phase II around 2022 subject to the money being raised to fund the work. Given the current budget of £1.2m for Phase II less £450k already spent and £400k already in the bank another £350k plus inflation needs to be raised.
This is based on free volunteer labour so, bearing in mind our ageing volunteer work force and few new volunteers coming forward, work may have to be put out to contract and this would significantly raise the estimated cost to completion although it would reduce the timescale.
The Restoration Committee have discussed how to carry out productive work during bad weather when it is not possible to work in the Whitehouses area. One proposal is to rough profile the banks from the cart track entrance at Little Tring towards Bridge 4 and at the same time create a roadway on the offside cambered towards the towpath side with a level ditch alongside draining into the manhole on the pipeline.
For more information on the Wendover Arm Trust, our progress, future working parties, and how you can help, please visit our websitehttp://www.wendoverarmtrust.co.uk/