Footpath work at Styal on Sunday 13th October 2019

Eight of us worked at Styal today, putting in drainage on a section of the top footpath to Twinnies Bridge.  The worksite was about 200 metres down the path from its start at the far end of the overflow carpark.  This was the same stretch of path that we worked on on 8 September.  The path had begun to flood because of heavy rain since – the existing drains beneath the path were blocked and not coping with the water running off the fields above the path.

The main task was to build a stone culvert across the path to replace a blocked plastic drainpipe.  This involved digging out the drainpipe to a depth of one foot, edging the trench with concrete kerbstones and roofing the trench with paving slabs.

Neil and Andy H digging the trench

Vicky (Ranger), Tim and Neil fitting the concrete kerbstone walls

The finished culvert

We also unblocked a second drainpipe that ran under the path a few metres away from the culvert, replaced one of the wooden planks that edged the path, scraped wet mud off the path and spread wheelbarrowfuls of stones on muddy sections of the path.

By the end of the day we could see tangible results from our construction – the path was much drier than when we arrived and water was flowing freely through the culvert and unblocked drainpipe.

Team MNTV

Daniel