The contractors poured a test slab of lime concrete yesterday, the first time it has ever been done on this scale, anywhere . This first pour was 12 cubic metres of mortar as a test to ensure the process and material was satisfactory. Approximate cost of the mortar alone was around £2000. An expensive test pour but all went according to plan and the contractors expected to carry on coating the entire dam with this material over the next week or two. Within the mortar is reinforcing and stainless steel wires stretching across the entire site and anchored deep into the structure of the dam. Once complete the entire new dam surface and original ancient structure below will be tied together as one piece and should last hundreds of years.
I arrived around 9.00am to see how they had got on and found Rob the site agent, fizzing mad. Overnight someone had entered the site and walked all over the still wet slab, completely ruining the integrity and finish beyond repair. Rob was’t really in the mood to talk so after a brief update I left them to carry on ripping out all yesterdays hard work. This probably took a fair bit of the day.
This was a mindless act of vandalism that has cost the contractors at least 3 days work and a whole load of money. With the weather sure to break shortly, I hope this doesn’t cause serious delays at some point in future. This project is publicly funded for the benefit of the residents of Catrine but some people just don’t care! I hope there are no further unnecessary set backs like this.
The site agent supervising the removal of yesterday’s hard work No wonder he was angry!
