Monday, 15th June.

Yours truly is back from Italy. Fat tummy, check, wine withdrawal symptoms, check.

A vigorous rumbling noise met me as I got out of the car. This was our new, meatier roller at work, which, JC informs me, delivers the equivalent compaction of 150 tons per square foot when set on vibrate. Impressive.
Ready to go were the mini digger, and two 1ton dumpers. 80 tons of infill were on order, but not yet in sight. Nor were any other volunteers.... after last week's big slabbing bash, many people returned to their normal lives, and several were on holiday. Soon however Rod arrived, a very welcome sight, and we had the absolute minimum crew for doing the job.

At 08.30 Elliotts arrived with the first load of 20 tons, and a very bouncy driver, who gave us the thumbs up all round. We are ready to go. A quick calculation will give you that with two 1 ton dumpers, each driver has to do 40 trips into, and back out in reverse from, the channel behind the platform wall. And a very patient JC has to load the whole lot with the mini digger and a small bucket.

Here is the first pile, and one twentieth of it has just been loaded into Rod's dumper.

The timing was brilliant. The second dumper was fully loaded, just as the first reversed back out from behind the platform. So we managed to keep up a pretty uninterupted stream of dumps.

Then came the second load. Another 20 tons, and at a rate of one load per meter of platform, we at this point have done about 20 meters. This to achieve a 9 inch layer.
JC checks that the load goes in the right place, while Rod affords himself a well earned rest from looking over his shoulder, and being beeped at loudly.

This is what the job looks like as you drive along the back of the wall.

The roller is parked beyond the job, but can't be used yet, as the surface is just a row of humps. If only there was someone to spread out the infill....

And there they are, God bless them, Pete and Mike from B&S arrived in the nick of time and got to work with the shovels.

It's quite tough, this. Not only are we all pensioners, but it's hot. A rest from time to time is certainly in order.

After a while, Mike had to go on to another job, leaving Pete on his own. And those dumpers kept on coming...

You did brilliantly Pete, thank you, and we couldn't have done it without you. Hero of the day.

Note sure what was being said here, but my guess is:


JC: And once we have finished the job, we are going to do platform one !

Bob: *@*$* !!!!!

Just before lunch, and with Pete due to leave shortly, all  four of us attacked the remaining piles and levelled the new layer of infill right up to the bottom of the slope. The way was then clear for Big Bertha to compact the full stretch that we had just done.

Here is JC on the big roller, levelling the 9 inch layer we had just laid. One final layer is still required to complete the CRC2 infilling.

This final picture shows what we did in the afternoon - running over the freshly compacted layer, we started the next and final one with the remains of the 4th lorry load of infill delivered. We managed another 10 - 15 meters with what was left, so that a final dump of 60 tons should see this job completed, hopefully this coming Monday.

That's a pretty straight platform edge, by the way. Didn't they do well with the slabs?

Tired, dusty and sunburnt, we headed home. Avoiding two sets of temporary traffic lights round Bishop's Cleeve, yours truly went home via Winchcombe, forgetting the other roadworks there.

D'oh !