SUNKEN MARSH UPDATE 18TH JAN 2012

I paid a quick visit to the sunken marsh this afternoon to see if the work had started to repair the broken water main that runs beneath it. As you can see it certainly has started, the picture above shows the closure of the path at the southern end of the marsh, Abbey Mead lake is immediately to the right.

I spoke to one of the contractors who told me the work would take possibly two weeks, with the mechanical digger going into the marsh to start digging it up on friday. The work is being delayed a bit because of the sheer amount of water, up to four feet i'm told at this end of the marsh. This is too deep for the digger to work in so they are pumping it out first, as can be seen in the picture above, before laying some sort of matting for it to operate on. The water is quite heavily treated with Chlorine and because of this it cannot be pumped into the lakes, so it's being pumped into a carrier stream which runs along the western edge of the marsh and then straight into the tidal river Medway.

This is a big water main which runs right through the lakes, buried alongside part of Brooklands and the NW corner of Abbey Mead before crossing beneath the marsh and under the river to a pumping station in Burham. It amazes me that a drop in water pressure wasn't noticed somewhere.

I called in at the Alders lakes on the way home to look for the Goldeneye. I checked the Trout lake and, in the fading light, scanned the big lake as best I could without success. There are plenty of hiding places and lots of birds there so I might have missed it, but I wonder if it may have moved on now. Maybe i'll have another look tomorrow once the rain clears.