Chris Bond, the infastructure manager talks us through the latest from the actual landslip site.
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00:00So we're here at the Severn Valley Railway, where the landslip is, and we're here with Bond, Chris Bond.
00:05Hello sir, how are you?
00:07Not too bad, thank you.
00:08And what's your role with Severn Valley then, Chris?
00:10So I'm the Severn Valley Railway's infrastructure manager.
00:13I'm responsible for all structures like this along the line, as well as the track and buildings.
00:18So it's quite a broad role.
00:20So let's start with what we know so far then.
00:23So unless you've been living under a rock, people will be aware there's been a landslide.
00:29What do we know? Go on, fill us in on it.
00:31What's your take on it and what you know so far and how it happened?
00:34Well, what we know so far is that it happened probably during the night in the early hours of last Wednesday.
00:41And it was reported to us during the morning of that day by the chaps who work in the yard opposite.
00:48And obviously we rushed out here to see what the issue was.
00:51But as you can see, it's quite a devastating scene.
00:56What seems to have happened at the moment is the wing wall has collapsed of the bridge.
01:00Yeah, so the wing wall, that's that. If we look kind of just over your shoulder, we've got the bridge.
01:04But then we've got these walls that kind of curve round almost at an angle to support it.
01:09So that's the wing wall. So there would have been one over there.
01:13So we think that that's what's given way first, possibly.
01:15That's what the initial look at reports are.
01:20Until we get the material removed from the surface and are able to look at the foundations,
01:24we won't know exactly what the nature of the failure is.
01:28It's worth pointing out that the structure was inspected about three days before
01:32by one of our volunteer teams of civil engineers.
01:36And they didn't pick up any obvious signs of imminent failure.
01:40So this has come as a bit of a shock to them.
01:41So no cracks in the wing wall and they'd have been looking for those, wouldn't they?
01:45Something like that. There's been no history in the past of problems here.
01:49So this is a new issue that we've obviously got to deal with.
01:54Yeah. So at this stage, are you coming up with ideas of how to fix it?
02:02Because as a layman, I'm thinking, I haven't even got a clue where you start here, Chris.
02:06Well, luckily, we've got a lot of expertise on tap.
02:11And this last week, we've been having meetings here on site with various people from Network Rail
02:17through our partnership with them.
02:19So they brought a lot of expertise to the table.
02:21We've got our consulting engineer and our previous consultant engineer
02:26has come as a volunteer as well, who has vast experience.
02:28So we've had all that information feeding in.
02:32In the next day or two, we're going to carry out ground investigations,
02:34which will involve sinking boreholes to find out what's underground.
02:38And then hopefully next week, we're having a big sit around a table
02:41to start formulating what we're going to do to repair this damage.
02:46So based on how the investigations go, can you see the solution ahead?
02:55Are you thinking, well, if the ground's blah, blah, then it'll be metal struts
02:58or it'll be another wall?
03:01I mean, the thoughts at the moment, and these are only early thoughts,
03:04that it's going to be some kind of piling solution,
03:07either sheet piles or vertical concrete piles. We don't know yet.
03:10Obviously, having the ground investigation information will help us to decide
03:15which sort of course we're going down.
03:17But it's quite obvious, as you can see from the scale of the damage,
03:21this isn't going to be a quick fix.
03:23And we are talking months, I think,
03:25and probably in the hundreds of thousands of pounds to repair.
03:29I was going to say, so was it 2007 when we had the landslip before?
03:34That's right, yeah.
03:35So on the scale of what happened there and the difficulty that's facing you here,
03:41this is bigger, isn't it?
03:42Well, not really. No, in 2007 we had damage on this kind of scale
03:48all along multiple points of the railway.
03:51And that was a once in probably a hundred year rain event
03:54that happened on that occasion.
03:56And the repair bill was something like £3.6 million.
04:00So, but this is obviously just a single location.
04:03So we can focus all our energies on getting this sorted as quickly as possible.
04:09So it's kind of similar, but it's not on the same scale as 2007, fortunately.
04:14But do you say you'll be hoping that the repair bill is going to come in less than the previous?
04:20Our initial finger in the air feeling is it's going to be in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
04:25Until we've got the solution designed and then costed,
04:28then we won't be able to provide an accurate figure to them.
04:30I'm sure that will be available at some point.
04:32If it is going to be kind of like say,
04:35a pile driving up with concrete or metal.
04:38Can you work out in your head from an engineering point of view,
04:40how you do that with the stream and you know,
04:42because you've kind of, it's tricky, isn't it?
04:46The piles will go in from above.
04:48From above, okay.
04:49And then obviously we've got to clear all the fallen material
04:52and then rebuild that embankment over there.
04:55I think what we're probably going to end up doing,
04:56rather than rebuilding the masonry wall,
04:59we're going to end up putting gabion baskets with stone in them.
05:03Which is a quite common repair on sort of land related issues.
05:06Oh, is that when you get like the mesh blocks
05:09and then slowly fill them with the stole bit by bit?
05:11Okay, okay.
05:13I've got you.
05:13So with, I mean, at the minute,
05:16you know, people who think that,
05:17oh, well, we'll be back on the Severn Valley from Bridge North in the summer.
05:20That might not be the case.
05:22The plan at the moment is that we're able to run from Kidderminster to Hampton Load Station.
05:26So that will at least allow a decent length journey for our visitors.
05:30Obviously, we have a problem that most of our locomotives are stranded at Bridge North.
05:34And indeed, there's a movement of one shortly down to Kidderminster.
05:38So we've got a steam engine that end,
05:39because they've all been brought for winter maintenance.
05:41I didn't think about, you know what, that's one thing I've not factored in actually.
05:45Yeah, like you say, you're getting those engines to Kidderminster.
05:47So one will have to be transported via another main.
05:50One initially.
05:51And then once we've kind of got a scale of how long this is going to take,
05:55then there might be further road movements to take locos down there.
05:59Yeah.
06:00And we're hoping at some point to do something at Bridge North.
06:02So visitors to Bridge North have got something to look at.
06:04And it's something that we have done in the past when we've had similar issues.
06:08Yeah, because potentially a train could...
06:10In previous events...
06:12Is it Erdington, the station just down the road from here, Bridge North side?
06:16So they have had kind of special events there, haven't they?
06:18With vintage cars and stuff.
06:19It's unlikely we'll have trains running to Erdington.
06:21But there might be something going on in the station there.
06:24All these sorts of things have got to be organised.
06:27But yeah, fortunately we've got a significant length of line available for our visitors to travel on.
06:32So that's a blessing.
06:34So do you think it's still kind of on the cards as to whether there'll be something happening at Bridge North
06:39where there'll still be a bit of...
06:40You know, the trains will be going, there'll be a bit of puff and stuff.
06:42Before now, we've had a locomotive in steam there and given footplate rides just outside the station.
06:48Yeah.
06:49So there's something for our visitors to see there.
06:51But yeah, obviously we've had an event coming up
06:53which we've had to contact a number of our visitors to say
06:56we're not being able to take you from Bridge North.
06:58Yeah.
06:59We're being redirected to Kiddingham instead.
07:00Yeah.
07:01And of most of them, do you know, they've just kept the tickets and said,
07:04yeah, we'll go with that line.
07:05Yes, it's got my area of expertise.
07:07Yeah, yeah.
07:07But yeah, you know, obviously we've got a whole visitor services department
07:12that can deal with those sort of issues.
07:14So the bridge isn't listed.
07:16Those inspections that you mentioned, they used to be every five years,
07:19but they're actually every year now on the bridges, aren't they?
07:21Yeah, yeah.
07:22So, when you came and saw...
07:25I mean, how long have you been involved with the Severn Valley, Chris?
07:27Well, I started as a volunteer when I was 15 in 1977.
07:30Fifteen, wow.
07:31So, I worked for BT for nearly 30 years
07:34and then I started working for the railway when I took voluntary redundancy.
07:38Yeah.
07:39And I've been in this role about 12 years.
07:41Yeah.
07:42It's been a very steep learning curve and I think this is my 2007.
07:46Yeah, yeah.
07:47And I mean, how did you feel then on a personal level?
07:50I guess it's always on the cards.
07:52Isn't it? That something could happen and you're just waiting for that call to a degree.
07:55Yeah.
07:56But when you came down and saw it, how did you feel personally then?
07:59Well, you know, the railway is very dear to my heart
08:02and we've seen some quite difficult times lately with Covid and the cost of living crisis
08:07and, you know, all tourist attractions are having to fight for each pound.
08:11Yeah.
08:12And this is really something we could have done without at this time.
08:14We're kind of starting to get back on our feet financially in the right direction.
08:19So, this is a bit of a blow to those efforts.
08:22So, you know, we've had a lot of generous support financially so far with donations coming in.
08:28It's obviously going to be quite a large repair bill for this.
08:30So, you know, the more money people can donate to us
08:34then the quicker we can get this done and restore the railway.
08:37And what have we actually got flowing through here?
08:40Is this a certain stream? Has it got a name?
08:42This is called the Moor Brook.
08:43The Moor Brook.
08:44M-O-R.
08:44Yeah.
08:45Not with an E.
08:46And does it flood?
08:48Yes, it flows into the River Severn just around the corner there.
08:51So, when the River Severn level comes up, it kind of backs up this way.
08:55Yeah.
08:55Also, you get a lot of water flowing down it because it feeds into the sides of the valley.
09:01Yeah.
09:02So, this is, I mean, the area along the Severn Valley floods regularly now,
09:06which is possibly a sign of climate change.
09:09Yeah.
09:09And I guess, I wonder if that could be a factor then?
09:12If there's been, you know...
09:14Yes, as I say, we don't know until we've got eyes on what's going on over there really.
09:20At the moment, we can't really touch anything.
09:22So, what's your concern about, I mean, obviously, you know, we can see how it is now.
09:26What's the thinking on, you know, that another, that same amount again could come down?
09:31And kind of the, you know, the concern about, you're digging this out,
09:35but then obviously that leads to even more falling down.
09:38Yeah.
09:38That's obviously a possibility, I guess.
09:39One of the things that, you'll see the guys up there today.
09:42These are chaps from Network Rail.
09:43Yeah.
09:44Through our partnership, they've given us a lot of assistance with this.
09:49And they're actually going to put a protective sheet over the top of the slip to keep the rain off it.
09:54Because what we don't want is heavy rain washing more material down.
09:57Yeah.
09:58Yeah.
09:58And further undercutting the line.
10:00So, this is kind of like a temporary measure just to help keep it as it is for now.
10:05Yeah.
10:06So, the first stage will be covering it up and then digging all this out that's come down.
10:11Yeah.
10:11Once we've got the engineering solution developed and posted.
10:14Yeah.
10:15Then we'll presumably be looking at a contractor to be able to carry out this work.
10:20Yeah.
10:21And that's all to be decided yet.
10:25Well, thank you Chris.
10:26And thank you for all the hard work you do here on our beloved Severn Valley that we all love really.
10:30So, good luck in moving forward with it chap.
10:33Thank you very much.