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The Vallette view will change in time

The Vallette view will change in time

Saturday 07 September 2024

The Vallette view will change in time

Saturday 07 September 2024


The recently reopened steps from La Vallette to the Clarence Battery will blend in with their environment more and more as time passes, according to the experts involved in the work.

Where vegetation was cleared so the cliff could be stabilised and new drainage systems installed, that will grow back and cover some of the currently visible brick work.

The hand railing - also currently clearly visible - has been designed to blend in too, said Marco Tersigni, the Infrastructure Officer for the Committee for the Environment and Infrastructure.

"The black railing you see is marine grade stainless steel, so even from a distance they just blend to the background," he said, "and the vegetation will grow, and it will obscure it as it did before with the previous wall."

cows horn Clarence Battery la Vallette NSP

Pictured: Vegetation will re-grow all the way up the cliff face.

Mr Tersigni said some of the vegetation is already growing back where it had to be cleared for the restoration work.

"We had to clear the vegetation to know where to put the netting on," he explained. 

"In time the vegetation will grow and it will obscure most of the wall that you see that's just recently been installed.

"There'll be self seeded sycamore, there'll be a variety of other vegetation, some you can already see - there's some self seeded elm and again sycamore and other plants that are native to this area of the coast," he said. 

Jon Greenfield, Managing Director of the project contractor, NSP Foundations said the way that the steps have been rebuilt was down to the structure of the cliff face itself. 

cows horn Clarence Battery la Vallette NSP

Pictured: Extensive work has been carried out to stabilise the cliff face and install new drainage systems.

Where some early critics of the work have complained that bricks have been used instead of granite sets, he said they had to ensure the work was viable.

"The extra weight of having a granite facing or wall itself would have totally changed the foundations that we had to put in," he said.

"Probably the most challenging part of the project was to put the foundations for that wall in. There are seven piles which sit on that run there and if it had been a heavier structure, there would have been a lot more to put in, which increases the challenges."

Mr Greenfield said NSP had between four and 12 men working on the site over the past six months, before completing the project ahead of schedule.

Aside from some specialists from the UK brought over to do some testing, all of the work was carried out by NSP and its local contractors.

"It's a big project," he acknowledged.

"It covers everything that we do but on a larger scale and at height.

"We do piling every day but when you're on the edge of a cliff face, it becomes a very different sort of task. It's involved everything that we do from drainage, piling, concrete works, netting, so it's been great for us."

landslide land slide cows horn

Pictured: The damage to the steps and cliff face was caused by heavy rainfall in March 2020.

Mr Greenfield is confident the new pathway can withstand the elements and the test of time.

"It's had sort of the full armour put onto it now. It's really been stabilised and the drainage has been sorted out. So any sort of heavy downpours will be taken away from the cliff edge. It's belt and braces now," he confirmed. 

Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, President of E&I, was among the first to walk up and down the newly reopened path.

She was very pleased with how it looks and how the project has been carried out to completion.

"The fundamental problem that we were dealing with was that the cliff was unsafe. It was unstable. There'd been a major landslip," she explained.

"I know that we will focus on the steps themselves, but actually, from a project perspective, it's about cliff stabilisation first and foremost. Being able to reinstate access by virtue of the steps is the icing on the cake, but it is mainly about that cliff stability.

"We've been as faithful as we can to the original pathway and the steps, but actually the new bit that you can see is a very lightweight structure for a big bit of infrastructure, and that's a really important factor, because the heaviness of the original granite steps was, quite possibly, a contributing factor to the landslip in the first place.

"I think, had had we gone down the route of using granite steps it would have been totally different and possibly not even viable."

cows horn Clarence Battery la Vallette NSP Lindsey de Sausmarez

Pictured: Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez inspecting the steps on Friday lunchtime.

Since the heavy rain of March 2020 that led to the landslide, Deputy de Sausmarez has been among those keen to see the steps reopened and she was very pleased when they finally were yesterday afternoon. 

"We've been waiting four years for this popular part of the island to be open to the public again, and I'm just delighted that access has been restored.

I don't mind admitting I'm really biassed towards the south and East Coast cliffs. They're some of my favourite parts of the island. I think they're absolutely magnificent as a Guernsey girl, I'm really proud of them and I love being able to show them off to visitors as well, so it's absolutely fantastic they were able to reconnect the Vallette, which also has seen some significant regeneration, with the Clarence Battery and beyond."

Pictured top (l-r): Marco Tersigni, Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez, and Jon Greenfield.

READ MORE...

GALLERY: Clarence Battery steps now OPEN

Cow's Horn access to be fixed

Clarence Battery work put out to tender

FINALLY! Cow's Horn access closer to being rebuilt

 

 

 

 

 

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