Northern Link to the Bath to Bristol Railway path

Slightly off topic as construction of this section is some way off, but Rob was enquiring about getting to and from the Bath to Bristol Railway path across the Lower Bristol Road. As this is something that has had little exposure I thought it might be worth a posting, albeit well in advance of any work starting. (nb - this section will be managed by B&NES as part of the Bath Transport Package (BTP) which is currently held up by legal challenges over the compulsory purchase elements of the Rapid Transit Route. If BTP funding were withdrawn as a result then this section would need to be funded from the annual Government transport grant which cannot be guaranteed. So, we await developments.)

Access would be via Inverness Road, which runs into Burnham Road.

Above is part of a draft plan produced by The Council Highways Dept (with my additional scribbling). It shows:

• Where Burnham Road joins the Lower Bristol Road, a widened [shared use] footway/cycleway would be created towards Jews Lane to the west.
• The current ‘Pelican’ crossing would be upgraded to a ‘Toucan’ crossing.
• The short section on the northern side of the road to Fieldings Road bridge would become a [shared use] Footway/Cycleway.
• The Fielding Road Bridge would then give access across the river to the Bath to Bristol Railway path.

Assuming this becomes a reality B&NES is to be congratulated on providing an excellent link between the two paths.

Another link into the city centre via the Western Riverside Development has also been discussed but is a bit more complicated and no plans are yet in place.

Note also the Herman Miller building that runs along the length of this section which LIDL has applied for planning permission (Reference 09/02140/FUL) to turn into one of their stores. Well done them in placing a bike store at the western end of the proposed building, thereby making life a little easier for cyclists. It has also been requested that, if the planning application is successful, the company should site any refreshment facility at the western end of the building to provide easy access to the many hungry and thirsty pedestrians and cyclists passing by!

The next dig thing

Just a few short weeks, and the new route's brought great changes to the top end of Linear Park. The current newcomer being what appears to be a red carpet, rolled out perhaps to honour two particular teenagers who along with their footsteps appear to have been quietly haunting the place.

The Devonshire Tunnel excavation isn't representative of the work needed to the rest of the Two Tunnels route - most of it doesn't involve excavating to a depth of around seven metres.

We're grateful for the forbearance of the immediate neighbours to this task, some of this work has not been quiet, it's involved the removal of trees, and much has invoked what have been described as 'Dragons' or 'Dinosaurs' rather than the 3000 or so pairs of hands that originally built the railway. (At other times we know them as diggers)

At the same time, many have seen the work first hand, and have also enjoyed the sight of the surprising number of visitors who've been up to the various fences to view the emerging tunnel, now in plain view, albeit behind the block wall. Some of these visitors have travelled a surprising distance to see the work in progress - if you can beat Glastonbury (by bus), do tell us - post a comment.

This phase of the contract being almost at an end, we continue to be grateful to the contractors Hope and Clay for turning out such a professional job - as has been remarked on in the steering group, something that was remarked on in the latest steering group meeting notes. This has been more than an ordinary excavation and as at least one visitor has observed, in the eyes of many thousands of people the old railway between Bath and Midford deserves to be as much of a world heritage site as any other location with that distinction. It's also the (unintentionally beautiful) product of a great deal of human endeavour, and while it's most unlikely to host trains once more, it is at least being thought of in one piece again.

Not that the old line can't produce a few surprises as far as trains are concerned. Late on Wednesday afternoon, a small party from the Two Tunnels committee visited the excavation courtesy of a neighbour. We were a little late, but at the moment we stepped up to the neighbour's garden fence and the portal of Devonshire Tunnel hove into view, a loco whistle from 35028 Clan Line sounded clearly across Oldfield Park from the present-day line through Bath - another truly scalp-tingling moment. To cap this, five minutes later, down in the cutting in warm sunlight, a heavy beat as the loco accelerated from its stop at Bath Spa caused us all to glance down beneath Maple Grove bridge - just to be sure.

So, what's next? Several weeks hiatus, especially because we're awaiting a bat licence, and the block wall will be coming down. Devonshire Tunnel will in due course be providing access to the Lyncombe Vale section, but before that, remedial work both to the tunnel and its portals. Whilst it's in surprisingly good condition after 35 or so years protection beneath the ground, the stone is very wet and will be drying for months, and it also merits a certain amount of removal of harmful concrete pointing and replacement with something more sympathetic. So, onward and upward, or in the case of the ramp, downward ...

Time for some Drainage

The blog post titles just get more gripping, eh?

When first visiting the excavation just a few weeks ago at the end of a cold March day, I remarked that the new excavation was drier underfoot than I expected. The person in charge pointed to a strip of freshly exposed stuff that looked much the same as the rest: 'There's a drain'. I'd not noticed the filled trench - filled with rather grubby railway-ballast-sized stuff, and not easy to see for the uninitiated. The contractors would have continued to put their observational skills to work for the following weeks as they excavated and in some places rearranged the material in the cutting, when they weren't prising it off the tunnel portal. Something's coping, because even the downpours of Good Friday didn't produce more than a puddle or two, though the excavation ran with water. It's obviously going somewhere.

Last Thursday evening provided a complete contrast to late March. It turns out that Devonshire Tunnel's cutting positively basks in evening sunshine, and the excavation was warming up nicely and exuding a fragrance that we'll kindly say was 'Earthy', and will in any case mellow in due course. Glancing light revealed the topsoil spread on the sides to have a thin covering of spider silk. A couple of crows were giving the ground the once over, while the badger sett entrance some way above the tunnel has seen the first small eruption of earth from its mouth for some time.

But, to progress. The contractors have for the most part shaped the down ramp to the tunnel, and much of the spoil that will be removed has now gone from the site. In the photos you'll see two part-completed fenced trenches running out from the tunnel portal. Revisiting, the following evening, the trenches had been extended and then filled with ballast-sized material - new drains to help keep the foundation of the down ramp good and firm. These will take water down the slope and out of the fill, it will then flow into the existing drainage which runs fairly energetically beneath the remaining material in the cutting.

The last two photos are from Friday evening, one shows the tunnel portal and newly filled drains - this image is taken 'Through the fence' from Linear Park - the work is for the present now thoroughly visible from there (with plenty of passers by stopping to look, some of them particularly curious because they remember the tunnel being buried). It will be good when this section is complete and in use as it's going to appear particularly pleasant as well as being dramatic. Chatting to two teenagers who were sitting by their bikes on a fallen tree down by the earth bund observing the goings on (been there done that), they said that while they'd been through Combe Down Tunnel on last year's open day, they couldn't wait to use the entire route.

(If you're interested in a Combe Down Tunnel open day, do put the 17th July in your diary and keep an eye on the web site)

The contractors will now be on site for around another week, and that will be the first work complete - the project's planning then indicates a hiatus for a month or so - preparations for the next stage of building the Two Tunnels route. They still have a little materials moving to complete, some of the ground has thrown up sections of brickwork, perhaps from demolished bridge once again. Much of this part of the route was built either in open country or on the edge of the built up area of the city, and both of the demolished bridges (and the surviving original arch of Claude Avenue overbridge) weren't originally built with the idea that they would cross urban streets - they were more of the nature of accommodation bridges, their traffic-constraining dimensions unfortunately ensured that they have not survived.

The underbridge that has survived is the three arched structure, Englishcombe Bridge, with a really strong flowering Blackthorn at one end of this - and the viaduct walks you straight past it at tree-top height. The viaduct was photographed to good effect by the author of the 'Forgotten Relics' web site - but here's 'Forgotten Relics' on the Devonshire Tunnel excavation.

Two Tunnels Route: a work in progress ...

The excavation continues, and new for last week was the removal of some of the infill from the site. The contractors have laid a haul road right into the work site for this. About 40 lorry loads will go, leaving ... space to excavate some more stuff from the filled cutting. That 'Stuff' has turned out to be as indicated in the test borehole - clean subsoil, pretty heavy and 'Clayey'. Some of it, at a pinch, you could probably throw and fire to make small pots (The site's not a million miles from the location of Oldfield Park's Victoria brickworks too)

We've now heard from one of the people who filled the cutting here in the seventies. Apparently, the length between the tunnel and the entrance to the public open space was filled with earthy material from the embankments, the length down to Maple Grove bridge with rubbly stuff from the demolished bridges themselves - hence a largish panel of brickwork that can be seen, flat in the ground to one side of the Linear Park path, not far from the overbridge itself.

This stage of the excavation has lowered the ground level sufficiently that the tunnel portal is now visible to passers by from Linear Park itself.

This week may also have answered the important question of whether any part of the portal will be visible to someone standing on Maple Grove Bridge. The photo on the left is actually taken from the bridge, and shows that it appears that this will be the case. We're pleased at this: the bridge itself has survived to be a touchstone to the past - generations of people would stand there to watch trains climbing the bank before vanishing into the improbably small mouth of the tunnel itself - some can remember that sight to this day, so it's good to bring this old sightline back into being.

The weather's not been too unkind, the snows of mid-week stayed in mid-Wales, but there have been a few heavy downpours, and on Friday the excavation was somewhat running with water and had almost managed to accumulate a puddle in the bottom.

When viewed from above, there's an impression of the amount of material that has been removed in the current week. This is a good vantage point for an overview of the work, though it's quite difficult to judge the depth of the excavation. The plan calls for a slope down to the tunnel that's a maximum of one in twenty - any steeper, and it would not be so suitable for anyone who happens to be in a wheelchair - and the 'New' Linear Park will be rather more accessible than the present one - any access ramps following the same 'Ruling gradient' if at all possible.

One resident who has lived in the area for a good many years confirmed the fact that trains in the tunnel very much made their presence felt in the houses above the entire length of it - the ground seems to have been particularly good at carrying the vibration, with the passage of locos, night and day, announced by a low and half-felt rumble, while mantlepiece ornaments tended to need to be stuck down to avoid them walking off the edge and into the hearth.

You can see that the view along Linear Park itself has somewhat opened out. Research indicates that bats actually appreciate a certain amount of structure in the landscape, as it allows them to navigate more easily. Another need is of course insects, and it will be good if Linear Park continues to be managed to provide habitats that encourage insects (though not to the extent that it becomes a swamp!).

Maple Grove Bridge, in the distance, is actually a three arched structure, and is in good condition - it's well built and has received a waterproof deck and maintenance when needed from the local authority.

While this work goes on,  the other, now less-regarded portal, at the far end of Devonshire Tunnel awaits its own rather less intensive restoration. For various reasons the entrance is a bit of a swamp, but it's already seen a little activity, in that the contractors have been through from this end to place tell-tales at the northern end of the tunnel to check that the present work isn't causing unmonitored movement. And of course the tunnel itself has been the subject of regular inspections from its owners, the British Railways Board (Residuary). In the image, to the right of the tunnel, copious amounts of wild garlic. The Two Tunnels route is a vampire-free area - and from a historical perspective, there's a tradition that the wild garlic that grows profusely around Bath is a gift from the Romans ...

The entire length in Lyncombe Vale makes for a good explore, it's still showing the benefits of the Two Tunnels group's 'Litter pick and clearance' work party there one wet March day in 2008. For some years an overgrowth of saplings was threatening to forever close the deep summit cutting beneath Moger's bridge. Since the volunteer day, other smaller scale work (not by us) has ensured that the stretch has stayed reasonably clean and clear. Here's an image from the day that shows a great deal of small stuff on the deck (and if you happened to be there, thanks again!)