floodwall breached by girders

Yesterday, 29th June 2007, the builders did a great job supporting the undermined house by putting horizontal brace-girders (or whatever they're called) between the undermined wall and the opposite wall of the river. These girders are designed to take great stresses along their length and the builders did a fine job of fitting them in case of further subsidence, until permanent repairs are begun next week. But really the river brooks no temporary repairs, as we have seen before. These girders are sectional, the parts being butted together with four bolts. They will be fine so long as the river does not rise (as predicted) this weekend, and so long as no floating treetrunks hit their sides at 8 to 20 knots (depending on depth). They are chocked and wedged at the ends with wood. The river loves wood because it moves about when wet and floats, and 8kts+ of water kind of jemmies things out. Then there is the breaching of the wall. To fit the girders, the flood defence wall had to be breached, as you see in this clip. Previously, in our highest inundation of 25th June, water did not get over that bit of wall so it was able to drain out of the house at that point, as fast as it came in elsewhere. We dare not put sandbags on the breached wall (it's over the hole), and there are no spare ones anyway. So water will come in at a higher level than before at a new place, and more of the ground floor will get flooded, with no pour-out point. As I said, the river brooks no temporary measures. But it has been a difficult job for the structural engineer, and for his rubber-stampers at the environment agency and insurance company, and for the builders - and they have all tried their best. Without the girders, gravity could have caused new damage in due course, anyway. So far the building is quite undamaged - touch wood.

Technorati: breached by don't floodwall girders gods river tell