Severe Storms at Dawlish Warren in the UK

[Snowhill]

2 days of severe storms have caused damage to the railtrack at Dawlish where the sea wall has been washed away. The South West has been cut west of Exeter.. http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry...e-damaged-after-seawall-collapses-at-dawlish/

 

[clam1952]

Pretty grim stuff, know the area very well, been watching on and off on TV most of the day, 6 weeks to repair is very over optimistic especially if the weather carries on like it is at present.

 

[teddytoot]

Now we can see the effect of Beeching axing the ex SR Okehampton line.

 

[Vern]

Link to some images:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rms-hurricane-force-winds-sweep-Atlantic.html

 

[Paulsw2]

Now we can see the effect of Beeching axing the ex SR Okehampton line.

hear, hear :clap:

Paul

 

[nikos1]

That 200 ft stretch of track is going to take several months to fix? RJ Corman could patch it up in a week and get trains back running...

 

[fran1]

That 200 ft stretch of track is going to take several months to fix? RJ Corman could patch it up in a week and get trains back running...

The way they fart about with health and safety in this country it'll take them 2 weeks to sort safe working practices out.
They not long back did a repair of the sea wall not far from there, you might have thought they'd have looked at the rest of it seeing as when one bit gives the rest won't be far behind.

 

[Vern]

The issue at the moment is more stormy weather is forecast so there is a danger now the wall is breached of further erosion. Also there is little point starting repairs if concrete and materials are just going to get washed away. This was one of the worst tides on record in the area - certainly first time the railway has ever received a "black" storm warning.

I would not consider health and safety concerns "farting around". The remedial work will be planned and assessed just as any other major engineering job would be. Do a botched job and try explaining to the families of those on the first train that comes to grief and ends up in the sea, "Oh well, we didn't want to fart around". It is not the first time the Civil Engineers have had to replace a washed out structure in this country and I'm sure it won't be the last - just let those who know what they are doing get on with their jobs.

 

[ex-railwayman]

Thanks for the photos link Vern, some absolutely amazing images on record, now we can see what similar devastation Tsunamis have caused around the globe over the years, hearts and prayers go out to all those affected down in the West Country and across in Eire.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[amigacooke]

Now we can see the effect of Beeching axing the ex SR Okehampton line.

Given that the likelyhood of the Dawlish route being damaged again is high and liable to get higher, I hope that the Department of Transport is at least considering a reinstatement of the inland route.

 

[masontaylor]

I doubt I'm the only one who feels that reparations at Dawlish and thorough investigation of an alternative or duplicate route to Devon and Cornwall deserves far higher priority than all the faffing around with HS2 - lifelines before vanity projects, surely?.

 

[Stationbeem]

I would like the HS2 project scrapped and the the money spent on up-grading and repairing the existing Railways.
Priority going to coastal defences such as Dawlish. But can you see that going to happen.....I think not.

 

[JCitron]

First I off I can say this was truly awful. We've had our share here across the pond this winter as well with flooding and ice, and apologise for sending the mess your way.

Don't you know that new projects are more fun than fixing up the existing infrastructure?

Where I live, the mainline bridge across the Merrimack River was considered unsafe at normal travel speeds so the MBTA (Mass Bay Transit Authority) cut the speed to 5 mph across the river. This doesn't just affect freight service on the line since both the commuter trains run by the MBTA and Amtrak's Down Easter also use the same line. A big smell was created over the bridge and things had to be done. Work crews appeared for about 4 months and they did some work. In the meantime, the bridge project has stopped while a new project is being done to bring yuppies to Back Bay station in Boston. This little snot of a former dock branch is taking precedent over the critical link to Maine and other points north. Gotta love politicians...

John

 

[fran1]

Gotta love politicians...

John

Money, money money and votes is all they care about.

 

[jjanmarine3]

....... Gotta love politicians...

John

A pilot went down in a remote area one day and while wandering around in the bush for many days he came upon a skull and crossbones sign hanging on a tree that read ' Restaurant'.
Under the sign next to a large pot boiling over a cooking fire sat a cook with crossbones in his hair and stirring the pot with a large wooden spoon.
The menu read :
' Boiled Tourist - $50 '
' Boiled hunter - $100'
' Boiled politician - $5000'
The pilot mentioned to the cook that he had just had breakfast and was not hungry thank you but he would like to know why the politician was so expensive, and the cook replied.....
" Have you ever tried to clean and skin one of them things suh ?? "....

 

[pfx]

I would like the HS2 project scrapped and the the money spent on up-grading and repairing the existing Railways.
Priority going to coastal defences such as Dawlish. But can you see that going to happen.....I think not.

One of the big issues with coastal defences which is never mentioned, is that in building these, the problem does not go away, it is merely moved further along the coast to an unprotected area. It's a catch 22 perpetuated my the interference of man on the landscape and it's a similar story with flooding inland, much of the natural flood prevention having been removed to make way for various enterprises such as farming or building.

Building walls and barriers isn't the ideal answer, nature already having provided solutions to many of the problems we experience today. Sadly, people want the quick fix which may provide a more immediate dividend, but which in time I'm sure, will ultimately fail again.

Unfortunately, I don't see any chance of the alternative route being reopened anytime soon.

 

[jjanmarine3]

seeing that the sea is reclaiming land what choices are there, move further inland or repair damage periodically ?

 

[masontaylor]

[snip...] Sadly, people want the quick fix which may provide a more immediate dividend, but which in time I'm sure, will ultimately fail again.

Unfortunately, I don't see any chance of the alternative route being reopened anytime soon.

No, there's not a good record on the reopening of lines - as the snailpaced reconstruction of some of the Waverley route from Edinburgh to the Borders proves only too well, not to mention the urgent reconstruction already required on the recently recommissioned Stirling to Alloa line (which was underbuilt for the weight of freight it's now carrying).

On the other hand, two other emergency repairs in the same general area seem to have been rather more successful. The first is the new one kilometre avoiding line built after the collapse of the Penmanshiel tunnel in 1979, which took five months of round-the-clock construction, with replacement buses between Berwick and Dunbar the while (although Edinburgh was able to maintain a direct service to London with trains running via Carstairs and the WCML to Euston) and the other the realignment of the ECML near Prestonpans after it was discovered that old mine workings were causing the line to subside. A new section was built alongside on what is effectively an underground viaduct, with many months of trains creeping at a crawl over the existing track until it was completed. Aerial view here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15097772@N08/5350587484/in/set-72157612927694359/

 

[teddytoot]

Just a thought but couldn't the Royal Engineers place the modern equivalent of the old Bailey bridge across the gap from the stable parts to connect the inner up line with crossovers either side to give an emergency route while restoration of the sea wall takes place? After all in both WW1 and WW2 they managed to do these sort of things very quickly as they advanced and we still have a bridging camp in the army here in Weymouth.

EDIT
Having now seen more TV footage it looks as if damage is more widespread than just the washout part, so my idea is a non starter and the estimate of 6 weeks is a reasonable one, since they cannot readily get a proper estimate of requirements until the weather calms down and the latest forecast is for more storms into, at least, the middle of next week. Then there will be the lead times to procure the necessary materials etc.

 

[itareus]

Now we can see the effect of Beeching axing the ex SR Okehampton line.

Not to mention the Teign Valley line, which used to be the diversionary route in GWR days:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teign_Valley_Line