Work restarts - Wed 17 Mar 10

Following a few days break while the Council licencing issue was sorted out, work has re-started to clear and excavate Devonshire Tunnel northern portal.

Work Starts

Following the highly successful start of work celebration the previous day, on Tuesday 9 March 2010 the Hope and Clay contractors started work on excavating the Devonshire Tunnel. Unfortunately it stopped shortly afterwards due to the Council Parks Dept not having issued a license to work on Council land. It is hoped to re-start work on Monday 15 March 2010 or soon thereafter.

3,2,1 and liftoff for the Two Tunnels Project!

We're pretty overwhelmed by the support shown this afternoon, people braving what turned out to be ... actually not too muddy and a glorious sunny day for good measure ... all there to witness the start of work on the Two Tunnels route.

A very impressive digger had been brought to the site by the contractors Hope and Clay, forming a backdrop to the ceremony. Nigel produced a smashing engraved ceremonial spade. The CE of Sustrans was along to help launch the start of work on the project - along with its engineer.

And many many many supporters arrived from all points of the compass. Brilliant!

For good measure, the photographer from the local paper - the Bath Chronicle - and then a film crew from BBC Points West too - we had a good couple of minutes on that - and also a mention on ITV local news as well. All good news for something that will improve Bath as a liveable city no end. We'll have more photos and hopefully some video on the web site very shortly.

More stirrings: this time Linear Park

We didn't expect this. A litter pick organised by an Oldfield Park community group on a threateningly wet and chilly Sunday afternoon dragged improbable amounts of crap from the historic collection of litter between the Dartmouth Avenue and Monksdale Road bridge sites.

This would have been an unpleasant and expensive job for a three person council crew. Split between about thirty people armed with litter pickers the afternoon flew past.

The result: well,  you wouldn't say the section was clean enough to eat off, but it's certainly far more of a credit to the locality, and more wildlife friendly too. Some people say Oldfield Park is ugly. It's certainly not, and Linear Park offers all sorts of perspectives on the city, a tour of suburban Bath cuts to rooftop views of Georgian Crescents and then a close shave with one of the UK's finest italianate churches.

Winter stirrings at Devonshire Tunnel

This is the grassed area above the filled cutting at Devonshire Tunnel at Christmas 2009 and at last, there's a (small) piece of real physical work on the route. The yellow pip in the centre foreground marks the position of a core sample taken to prove the material used to fill the cutting. We're confident that this is spoil removed from the embankment to the north, but best to be sure.

Fast Forward

The Two Tunnels route now has its own member of staff at Sustrans - since April of this year - an engineer/project manager tasked with bringing the route into being. Their work's really beginning to pay off.

And now we have a blog. It has actually been around since 2007 ... and there hangs a pig-tail ... it was put in place to provide an interactive resource for news of the project. Hopefully it can finally come into its own, now that things will soon be happening on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Southgate Development

Life in the city will be rather dusty for the time being, as the Southgate redevelopment involves removing various structures 'not wanted on voyage' before digging some rather large holes.

Here, the creature has just been told that it can't eat the bus station for a month or so, and it's not happy about this. Here's a link to more images.

Hopefully the 'Two Tunnels Project' can be an antidote to the disruption ... the local authority and Sustrans are working hard to put its planning application through.