Timeline: Monday 11 June: As the saying goes, ‘third time lucky’ today, or so
it seemed, as the water board turned up this time to make the final connection
from our new site drainage system in to public sewer network in the road.
We had been such good boys
Paul and I and had laid the new drains carefully to result in the final
manhole depth a full 250mm shallower than the water authority had agreed we
could have. This should be a doddle and a whole team of men and machinery set
to work after closing the road to traffic.
By lunchtime they had neatly
uncovered everything and were ready to insert the new pipe, when they invited
me to peer into their excavation so they could explain why they were turning a
simple job into a much more complicated one, well at least for me! Logic
indicated the simple solution, but they now decided they wanted to connect the
new pipe at the crown (top) of the huge sewer pipe rather than at the bottom,
as conventional in the UK. This resulted on our new lower manhole being too high! So we
now have to install a miniature pumping station to lift our waste water a half
metre in order for it to finally get into the very much deeper town sewer!
On the plus side, the chaps
were very sociable and had a healthy sense of humour, were happy to practice
their schoolboy English and they did an excellent job of clearing up after
themselves.
I’m now investigating the
revised final drainage solution, while being grateful that we still have our
original connection!
A bientôt,
LC
