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The collapsed culvert near the Little Chapel has been repaired, with former greenhouse lintels being repurposed to create a new headwall which will be concealed beneath the surface.
For anyone wondering what a culvert is, and why it's caused such problems in St Andrews, the Cambridge Dictionary definition is:
Wikipedia explains that a culvert is "a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material."
When the culvert collapsed beneath the road, in the dip where the Bouillon Road joins the Route de Saint Andre, it left a small sinkhole - roughly one metre wide - which was later dug out to reveal further damage beneath the surface.
That damage has now been repaired with Guernsey Water stating that "the culvert is no longer collapsed".
This culvert is used to take water from nearby streams, as well as run off surface water from surrounding fields and wider area,
Guernsey Water said that although the repair work has been completed, pumps are still being used to take that water across the road.
A section of culvert has been replaced with a new, plastic pipe installed. This sits at the base of the new headwall – made from old greenhouse lintels – which will collect the water.
Guernsey Water engineers have also changed where the water pools, meaning there should no longer be standing water there, with a constant throughput of water instead. Larger inlets have also been installed at the side of the road, which will go into the culvert, and all these measures should help reduce flooding in the area.
Pictured: The damaged culvert had added to problems with flooding in the area near the Little Chapel.
Guernsey Water said the engineers will put a more permanent surface around the top of the lintels, to make ongoing maintenance easier, and they'll prepare a screening solution for the pipe as currently there is only a temporary one in place which won’t stop it getting blocked in the longer term.
Operations Manager Jon Holt said this has been a challenging project for the teams and the sheer volume of rain which fell in recent days made a difficult task even harder. But, that hasn’t stopped their progress.
“This has been a challenging piece of work and teams have worked hard to create a solution in a short space of time. We are working hard to get the road reopened as soon as possible, and hopefully this redesign will also mitigate other flooding issues in the area.”
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