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Here are some more images from another site visit to the Earley Water Reservoir project. Work is progressing and at the time of taking the images, the last sections of the roof were being readied to be loaded into place.

It’s not until you see the inside of the ‘cells’ with the roof on that you get an idea of just how big they are. You can also see the last remaining wall section with steel rods in place ready for the last pouring.

Good progress all round I think.

Many thanks to Robert Searle for arranging the visit at such short notice.

Work continues at the new Earley Reservoir project site as it approaches the final pouring of concrete and next week could see the sealing of the cells as the contractors get ready to make their first water containment tests.

More pictures and another update soon.

I took another picture of the progress at the Earley Reservoir last week, lots of progress now that the weather has got better. It will soon be time for water testing.

See previous post for latest comparison.

Announced on the 13th march 2014, details of the Highways Agency proposals to convert the 32 miles of the M4 between junction 3 and 12 (Heathrow to Tilehurst) into a ‘smart motorway’ with work starting in 2016 and completing by 2022 include:

• 64 miles (32 each side) of new traffic lane taken from the existing hard shoulder, increasing capacity
• The erection of 131 new gantries
• 11 bridges to be rebuilt to provide space for the additional traffic lane
• 32 refuge bays are proposed alongside the carriageway for use by drivers in an emergency.
• More details of the work and the background for the changes can be found here.

As part of the Highways Agency ‘promotion’ of their plans, they are running a series of road exhibitions, the first two having been held already (very quickly arranged with little notice in the media, I wonder why?)and final one being on the 29th March.

See list below for location and links to Google Maps.

• Tuesday 18 March between 2pm and 8pm – St Giles Hotel, Hounslow Road, Feltham, TW14 9AD.
• Wednesday 19 March between 2pm and 8pm – Hillingdon Baptist Church, 25 Hercies Road, Uxbridge UB10 9LS.
• Friday 21 March between 2pm and 8pm – Theale Village Hall, Englefield Road, Reading, RG7 5AS.
• Saturday 22 March between 10am and 4pm – Holyport War Memorial Hall, Moneyrow Green, Holyport, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 2NA.
• Thursday 27 March between 2pm and 8pm – Copthorne Hotel Slough, Cippenham Lane, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 2YE.
• Friday 28 March between 3pm and 8pm – Winnersh Community Centre, New Road, Wokingham RG41 5DU.
• Saturday 29 March between 10am and 4pm – St Martin’s Church Hall, Church Road, West Drayton UB7 7PT.

There’s not much time to get to these exhibitions and put your views about the proposed changes, which do still need approved planning permission, However, if any of you remember what it was like when they resurface the whole of the M4 some twenty plus years ago, it looks like we could be in for over 5 years of serious traffic disruption on the M4 from 2016.

As part of the local community liaison by the contractors, I was one of a number of people invited to a site visit for the Earley Reservoir Project at the end of February.

A great visit and luckily, the weather did not impact the visit. Also managed to capture some good images of what is going on behind the fence.

Many thanks to Robert Searle of Black & Veatch Ltd for a great tour of the development and explaining the many different aspects of the work that is going on.

After my last post about the height of the sidewalls of the new reservoir being possible higher than the existing one I received this picture from the project coordinator.

It shows by the use of the blue line that the level of the new wall is below the level of the earth covering the existing one.

The new water reservoir project continues to make progress as work resumes after the Christmas break and yet more wet weather.

The latest photo shows that work has begun on erecting the side walls of the structure. Though I have to agree with the two people that I met when taking the photo, that the height of the walls seems to be higher than the existing reservoir and could be even higher when the earth is put back on when completed.

I think we understood from the plans that the roofs of both reservoirs was to be the same height. Something to discuss at the next project meeting I think.

It would appear that Wokingham council has caved into local pressure and put their plans for the redevelopment of Elms Field Park on hold.

It now looks like they will now reconsider their options and resubmit their plan at another time.

Perhaps they’ll now listen to some of the local comments that have voiced concerns about the plans.

The Big Dig becomes the Big Pour

The new water reservoir project continues to make good progress, despite the recent bout of very wet weather.

As can be seen from the my latest photo, quite a lot of the base layer of the two new water reservoir cells are now complete with the rest of the base due to be completed during January 2014.

When you stand next to the excavation, you can get some idea of the amount of earth that as been moved to enable this construction to proceeded. Still on track.

Work has begun on the new water reservoir and seems to be progressing well. Went up to the old water reservoir and took this picture of the current state of the ‘Big-Dig’