Two villages Two bridges

This is blog post about how two different villages go about fixing bridges.  I hope to be very impartial (difficult) and therefore leave you to make up your own mind on the issues.

Diggle

A small village in Saddleworth, northern England between Oldham and Huddersfield.  The village lies in a valley with abundant small water courses, including a canal.  It is not known as flood zone, despite an average annual rainfall of (approx) 47 inches because the water courses effectively carry the water quickly downstream to the River Tame.  However, to those who are blessed with a keen eye, you cannot mistake that on three sides of the village there are steep hills, with Huddersfield Road (to the north) being the most obvious as it exits the village.  Needless to say, flowing down the road is a fair proportion of the annual rainfall with Thorns Clough, the little tributary to Diggle Brook running parallel about 50 feet below in the valley base.

More or less at the bottom of Huddersfield Road (north) is Carr Lane.  This is a steep road linking the northern end of the village to A670.  It is short but steep, probably classed as a single track road and at its lowest point there is a bridge.  Thorns Clough runs under the bridge and at it widest I would say it is three metres, in full flow.

It took the best part of a year and half to rebuild this bridge!  Well, I said I would impartial, OK the walls and banking along the road have been reinforced, which was a considerable job and as modern dry stone wall examples go, I would say cannot be bettered, but all the while the bridge was under repair as well.

A fine piece of civil engineering

Even when the project was completed there was a temporary closure as a good deal of the annual rainfall fell in 24 hours and cascaded, as it has done for centuries, down Huddersfield Road.  As we know from school physics, water is susceptible to gravity, and in this case there was a convenient right turn down Carr Lane to the bridge.  The result was that half Carr Lane disappeared and ended in Thorn Clough.  The bridge was fine, but Carr Lane was a mess.

A well engineered bridge to last until the next millenium

Disaster as the first flood washes the road away

If you are so inclined you can read more about the saga by following the link www.diggle-news.com/wp Photo above courtesy of Stuart Coleman - Diggle News

Now we move on:

Thamuang

A small village about 40 kilometres north of Ubon Ratchathani, north east Thailand, about 6 kilometres from Highway 2050.  The village lies on the flood plain on the River Sa, which eventually reaches the world famous River Mekong in about 50 kilometres.  There is a not a hill of any significance anywhere.  There is substantial annual rainfall of 60 inches (approx) most of which (55 inches) falls during the rainy season between May and September.  The problem arises when the river overflows.  The land is so flat, the floods rise without warning.  

The villagers have built houses on stilts to prevent flood water ruining their homes, or, as we have done, to raise the building land a couple of metres above the flood level.  

The main road into the village has to cross a small tributary that flows into the River Sa.  Without the bridge the diversion to the main road is about 20 miles (which is a long time on a Honda Wave motorbike).  The bridge finally succumbed and had to be replaced in August 2010 - the height of the monsoon rainfall.

The workman took about 4 weeks to replace it, and each and every one was a hero.  As I passed the temporary crossing, when it was available, they all waved a shouted out my name, a very friendly hard working bunch.

Construction of the bridge in flood conditions

A Just Do It attitude 

OK the water is warmer - but there's more of it

Temporary spans in place

Next day - more flood water

Serious construction work

The finished bridge

The finished bridge (Take 2)

As I have said, I want to be impartial in contrasting the two projects.  Therefore, I have summarised the prevailing conditions of both locations, the needs of each village and shown you how each working group performed and to some extent the results of their efforts.  

However, I must say the Thais have shown Oldham Council how to build bridges!  I received an email on 3 September 2012 stating the road and bridge are closed again for repairs - this is almost TWO years after the project started.