Remediation is Underway

Some months ago the Blenheim Riverside Railway Society started a project to build a bridge across the Taylor River. The bridge is to carry the 2 foot gauge railway tracks to the true left bank and then over land to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. (This Aviation Centre was made famous recently by a visit by Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. They were hosted by Sir Peter Jackson who has an amazing collection of WWI planes and wartime memorabilia on show there).
Very complex piers had been driven eight metres down into the river bed and the project was humming along nicely until the recent severe storms and flooding in the Taylor River. This flooding brought tonnes and tonnes of gravel and stones down from the upper reaches of the river. Although it followed the original river channel the flood water dumped an enormous amount of gravel in just the wrong place….right between some of the piers. In fact a few piers were partially covered with gravel and stones and small rocks.
Today I observed some heavy machinery getting on with remediation. The gravel and stones were gradually being cleared away from the affected piers. But there is much work to be done to repair the ravages of the flood before the Riverside Railway volunteers can get on with their bridge building project. I will keep you posted.