Replacing London's Victorian Water Pipes...?
Badger asks:
Are you aware of the ongoing saga of the replacement pipe operation in Annandale Road.
We were informed that the Victorian water pipes were to be replaced and the operation would take 6 weeks starting Jan 2007 (Nearly a year and a quarter ago).
Well the original works did start then and actually continued for around SEVEN months. Once the workmen cleared off in July all was good until around September when a sewer pumping wagon started appearing at Midnight and sluishing out the drains (causing a little disruption with it's attendant noise, smell and flashing lights). Apparently the sewers were backing up into the houses on the odd numbered side of the street.
This continued until a work crew set up camp in November for a repair job on the main sewer which had somehow got concrete poured down it by the water pipe replacement operation (this is what I was told from the workmen). This was due to take around a week but actually took us into January and this time the road actually had to be closed as they dug a huge pit in the middle of the road.
Now they've appeared again early this month and are digging trenches down the sides of the road replicating the original operation over a year ago. Rumour has it that the pipes were not dug in at the specified depth and this therefore has to be corrected.
Six week operation still not completed inside 60 weeks !! Do any other corrsepondents know what is going on ?? Can the authorities enlighten us and if it takes this long for one street what chance for the rest of London which I believe is the extent of the whole operation ??
The Phantom wearily replies:
Sadly I don't think you're alone here, Badger. It seems that all over Greenwich (and, indeed, London) roads are dug up, filled in, re-dug, re-filled. Take Woolwich Road. I wonder which bright spark thought it was a good idea to excavate in late March 2007, only to have to fill it in again, having done bugger-all, for the Marathon in April. By the time they got round to digging it up again it was time for the Tour de France and the whole lot got filled in again. I thought they actually had it nailed when they did it again in about September - but a couple of weeks ago it was all fenced off and dug up around the corner - where Combedale and Kemsing roads are - and where all the traffic comes round the corner. And yes. Poor old Annandale Road has copped it yet again too. I'm so used to seeing those wire mesh panels somewhere (before the roads it was the SElectIOn (a name devised by a very weary PR person...) being built) that it will seem quite bare when the road's actually clear again.
Maybe the job is so big that they're just not training people properly to do it right the first time. I went to a lecture at the Barrier last year where Thames Water were boasting that they were ahead of schedule - thye'd counted on finishing all of London by 2010. Maybe they had actually factored-in the number of times they'd have to return to 'finished' projects so they could look good last year when they were getting all that bad press...
I know it's a big job and it has to be done (though I did notice that they're using the 'old Victorian waterpipes' excuse for every patch-job they're doing - in places that are clearly no older than mid 20th Century - some work in Charlton for example where the pipes cannot possibly be 19th Century is proudly annoucing that the 'Victorian' pipes are being replaced...) but if they'd just get it right the first time, it would be better for everyone.
Ooh. I do like coming back and having a good moan.
Are you aware of the ongoing saga of the replacement pipe operation in Annandale Road.
We were informed that the Victorian water pipes were to be replaced and the operation would take 6 weeks starting Jan 2007 (Nearly a year and a quarter ago).
Well the original works did start then and actually continued for around SEVEN months. Once the workmen cleared off in July all was good until around September when a sewer pumping wagon started appearing at Midnight and sluishing out the drains (causing a little disruption with it's attendant noise, smell and flashing lights). Apparently the sewers were backing up into the houses on the odd numbered side of the street.
This continued until a work crew set up camp in November for a repair job on the main sewer which had somehow got concrete poured down it by the water pipe replacement operation (this is what I was told from the workmen). This was due to take around a week but actually took us into January and this time the road actually had to be closed as they dug a huge pit in the middle of the road.
Now they've appeared again early this month and are digging trenches down the sides of the road replicating the original operation over a year ago. Rumour has it that the pipes were not dug in at the specified depth and this therefore has to be corrected.
Six week operation still not completed inside 60 weeks !! Do any other corrsepondents know what is going on ?? Can the authorities enlighten us and if it takes this long for one street what chance for the rest of London which I believe is the extent of the whole operation ??
The Phantom wearily replies:
Sadly I don't think you're alone here, Badger. It seems that all over Greenwich (and, indeed, London) roads are dug up, filled in, re-dug, re-filled. Take Woolwich Road. I wonder which bright spark thought it was a good idea to excavate in late March 2007, only to have to fill it in again, having done bugger-all, for the Marathon in April. By the time they got round to digging it up again it was time for the Tour de France and the whole lot got filled in again. I thought they actually had it nailed when they did it again in about September - but a couple of weeks ago it was all fenced off and dug up around the corner - where Combedale and Kemsing roads are - and where all the traffic comes round the corner. And yes. Poor old Annandale Road has copped it yet again too. I'm so used to seeing those wire mesh panels somewhere (before the roads it was the SElectIOn (a name devised by a very weary PR person...) being built) that it will seem quite bare when the road's actually clear again.
Maybe the job is so big that they're just not training people properly to do it right the first time. I went to a lecture at the Barrier last year where Thames Water were boasting that they were ahead of schedule - thye'd counted on finishing all of London by 2010. Maybe they had actually factored-in the number of times they'd have to return to 'finished' projects so they could look good last year when they were getting all that bad press...
I know it's a big job and it has to be done (though I did notice that they're using the 'old Victorian waterpipes' excuse for every patch-job they're doing - in places that are clearly no older than mid 20th Century - some work in Charlton for example where the pipes cannot possibly be 19th Century is proudly annoucing that the 'Victorian' pipes are being replaced...) but if they'd just get it right the first time, it would be better for everyone.
Ooh. I do like coming back and having a good moan.
Labels: Ask The Phantom
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
09:05
9 Comments:
Amazing!
When Fingal Street had its water main replaced in 2007 we had an identical problem. Not so much the length of time taken to effect the replacement but, strangely, workmen "accidentally" poured concrete down the new pipes causing raw sewage to back up and flood basements on the evens side of the street. We also had a pumping wagon in the road for over a week pumping out the basements on a continuous basis until a repair could be made.
Did nobody learn any lessons?
One of the interesting facts we learnt on Sunday's the Underground Walk was just how much destruction in Greenwich has been caused by leaking water pipes. The big hole in the A2 which opened up in 2003, the colapse of the Coach and Horses Pub and the condemed council blocks on Blackheath Hill are all down to broken pipes.
Roan Street (behind St Alf's) has been a real scream - first they resurfaced the road, then they dug it up to repair the leaking gas pipes, then they resurfaced it again, then they dug it all up to REPLACE the gas mains. No doubt they will resurface it again once the new pipes are laid.
The best bit? The same contractor did both the resurfacing AND the pipes' replacement. What a wheeze!
I just hope that whichever entrepreneurial Council 'manager' has designed this little con has been able to afford a nice house in Tuscany with all their kickbacks!
To be fair to the council, I don't think they get much say in it. Utilities can do what they damn please - both in and out of our houses. It's quite frightening. I really think they should be forced to co-ordinate work if they can - but the problem there is that they can always claim the work was "urgent..."
Sure, the utility companies have extensive powers to dig up the streets, but the Council does have an overall programme of works, and we (taxpayers) pay to have the roads resurfaced. It's the thrice-resurfaced road that I find so irksome.
While I'm whingeing about public-private 'partnerships', here's a little story that I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it myself. About a year ago, when the High Road was being dug up in front of the Picturehouse, I heard a funny noise on Straightsmouth and went out to investigate. A digger from the roadworks had driven down the road, parked himself on Straightsmouth, and was in the process of trying to uproot the kerbstones! I shouted at him something like 'what the feck are you doing?!' and he just upped sticks and drove off back whence he had come...
No prizes for guessing which contractor it was...
Here in Charlton they've been at it since last year too. They've actually been pretty efficient at what they are doing, and made good progress. But what puzzles me is why the Council wasted their money last year re-surfacing my street when it is now being dug up! Surely they knew that Thames Water were going to be replacing the mains?!
Yes, I too have noticed the 'replacing London's Victorian sewers' tag cropping up like they're involved in some great herculean efforts on the part of us idiot Londoners who clearly have not had the plumbers around for a hundred years. Well, if present day workmanship lasts for even of the third of the time the Victorians' work did then clearly we are going to be very, very lucky!
Blackheathen
Franklin - completely agree with you about the old Roan St nightmares! How long can it possibly take?! I've even ended up with a parking ticket because the road markings have been re-surfaced over, and even though I appealed the ticket the council said 'no go' and the idea of appealing it further and going to court - although I'd probably win, I've decided that a day off work to go to court is worth more to me than £60! And the 8am start for noisy work on a Saturday morning- grr... don't get me started!
Yep its right old palava this digging up the road malarkey.Although I must say that last night after the gas guys had hit a watermain and buggered off for the night,the very deep hole was rapidly filling with water, I rang the contractors number and , hey presto! an hour or so later Thames Water dudes are there lookin in t'hole. I am sure they got more than just my call though.
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