Victoria Park Cracking up Options

[LeeG]

Bad news about Victoria Park cracking up and the damage to nearby homes. I notice that the cause has been suggested as dry weather, but I don't recall such damage back in 1976 and it certainly was dry then! Anyone remember anything being reported back then on the matter?

[JeffG]

Discussed here: http://forum.newburytoday.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=803

But that was before the new article: http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article...articleID=14089

[Andy Capp]

I seem to remember that it is the driest start to a year for 60 odd years. Even if so, I would imagine dewatering the area wouldn't help.

[Bloggo]

I saw the amount of water being pumped into the canal on Sunday and it would seem to be quite significant. Does anyone know if this will stop and revert to being the underground stream (North Brook ) that it was once Parkway is finished or will it always be pumping to protect the new underground carpark?

[Bloggo]

I have just been informed that once Parkway is finished the pumping will cease and the water will find it's own course again. Since there is now a great deal of impervious concrete in it's path will that cause flooding to the areas around the site?

[blackdog]

I have just been informed that once Parkway is finished the pumping will cease and the water will find it's own course again. Since there is now a great deal of impervious concrete in it's path will that cause flooding to the areas around the site?

I doubt that it will create many extra flooding problems, the concrete is filling up relatively little space.

The North Brook ran (and may well still run) down the west side of Northbrook St, not through the Parkway site. There was another brook down the east side of the Park, where the A339 is today. I don't know if either were culverted, but they may well have been.

[Bloggo]

I doubt that it will create many extra flooding problems, the concrete is filling up relatively little space.

The North Brook ran (and may well still run) down the west side of Northbrook St, not through the Parkway site. There was another brook down the east side of the Park, where the A339 is today. I don't know if either were culverted, but they may well have been.

Interesting. Thanks for that.

[Biker1]

I doubt that it will create many extra flooding problems, the concrete is filling up relatively little space.

The North Brook ran (and may well still run) down the west side of Northbrook St, not through the Parkway site. There was another brook down the east side of the Park, where the A339 is today. I don't know if either were culverted, but they may well have been.

Both streams still exist (you can't just get rid of them!) but both now run underground.

The water table in the area surrounding the river Kennet is very high and will always remain so. Yo cannot pump it all away and I would imagine that the amount being pumped from the Parkway site is small compared with the total amount of water in the table.

The land under the area surrounding the river Kennet in Newbury I think is mainly gravel and the water that is being pumped away from the site is probably just seeping back through this gravel from the river.
A continuous circle really.

I remember as a lad when they were building the now infamous BT tower (telephone exchange) in the late 60's that they had to employ a specialist (I think) French firm to pump away the water so they could lay the foundations.
I remember it was quite revolutionary process at the time but is now probably a routine procedure.

Edit. On further research it appears that the original 1969 building had to have a specialist firm in because the water could not be pumped away fast enough.
They used a technique where the pumped concrete into the water logged foundations and then, when it had set, they cut the basement out of this concrete raft.
It was the later 1975 extension that used a pumped water process to lay the foundations.

[blackdog]

Both streams still exist (you can't just get rid of them!)

Why not? As long as the water has somewhere else to go it must be easy enough to get rid of a small stream/ditch such as the North Brook.

The stream across Northcroft/Goldwell Park hasn't been culverted, but there's no water in it these days.

[Biker1]

Why not? As long as the water has somewhere else to go it must be easy enough to get rid of a small stream/ditch such as the North Brook.

Yes you can divert them but you can't get rid of them.

The land will drain and you can't stop it!

Take the Severn Railway Tunnel for example.
Millions of gallons of water are pumped from it every day.

No, it is not the River Severn that is leaking in, but natural springs that were uncovered when it was built and that cannot be stopped!