We will be working tomorrow, as there isn’t actually all that much rain forecast.

Well meet at Maldon at 8am, then head out to the Gas Pipeline to insert more sleeper plates, drill and spike etc… from 8.30am.

The track in from the Muckleford end is quite rough after the rain, we’d recommend coming the long way in through Sawmill Rd (the gate will be open)

We got very lucky with the weather today. Just a hint of rain as the last battery went flat.

We’ve drilled and stood spikes for just over 1 km, a fair effort for a small crew of 5!

We got to test a creation of John’s, a slide hammer for starting spikes. And despite it being a bit heavy after the first km, it certainly beats the hell out of bending over and starting each one with a hammer!

We’re now well into Curve 11, with really only one days worth of drilling to go to get to the end of the job, plus a few more days to get everything ready for drilling.

Next week’s weather is looking interesting, so check back on Monday for details of Tuesday.

It was nice to finally get back out onto the track today, in what actually ended up being a warmish day in the sun.

We spent the day drilling holes, dropping out spikes, starting the spikes and driving them.

We’ve covered close to one km of spike driving today and probably around another 500m of drilling and standing.

Tomorrow’s crew will be continuing with this task, starting about 2kms this side of Sawmill Rd Crossing (enter via Sawmill Rd). The weather is looking a little unpredictable, however there isn’t any significant rain forecast to fall until the afternoon, so we should still achieve a bit. We’ll be meeting on site from around 8.15am.

We spent today propping up a pile at Muckleford Creek Bridge, the pile in question has needed lifting for some time, however the track above was level and the pile solid.

With all the recent rain the ground is now saturated and the pile was starting to settle under load, indicating the Sill is failing and hence not being adequately supported.

So we’ve looked up the plans and installed a temporary ground levek Sill to help prevent it getting any worse, until the ground dries out enough to repair it (and given that this pile is due for renewal in February anyhow, this fix will be more than adequate until then).

We also removed all the debris from around the bridge, washed down in the rains.

We then moved onto Winters Flat, to again remove debris. We’ve cleared what we can without swimming and we’re investigating ways of getting to the rest, however now that we’ve cleared what we have it’s unlikely to cause much issue in the rain predicted this weekend.

Thursday is looking wet, but we’ve been fooled before! So we’ll still planning on working, drilling and standing dog spikes. Meeting at Maldon at 7.45am, then out near Sawmill Rd Bridge from 8.15am.