Between Tinsley Towers and the River Don
Yesterday I found myself looking back through my photo archive and stumbled across some photos I took in June 2007 while supervising a GI next to the old Tinsley cooling towers (to be demolished in 2008), all that remained of the old Blackburn Meadows coal-fired power station. Like so many others I used to drive past the towers regularly on my way up and down the M1 and they looked over you as you drove past. They were even more awe-inspiring when you were working next to them...
Every site investigation project has its challenges and we thought we'd had our share between the drilling, the unbelievably thick reinforced concrete slabs and the asbestos. Then on the 25th June the River Don, which ran through our site, overtopped its banks.
The waters rose fast, but thanks to the calm and collected team from Soil Mechanics we got off-site quickly and safely. Back at my digs (The Premier Travel Inn, as was, at Meadowhall), we watched as the waters kept rising. As night fell all the lights failed, the reception filled with water, people were moving their belongings up to the first floor, and we witnessed the RAF helicopter airlifting people trapped in nearby buildings.
Once the waters subsided I walked around the Meadowhall shopping centre and the surrounding area and took some photos of the damage for our project team to pass on to the local authorities. I've first-hand experience of flood damage from when our house flooded when I was younger. This was something else. The scale of the damage was awful and I felt sorry for the people of Sheffield, and all the other areas affected by flooding. I witnessed people bailing their cars out (that had been fully submerged the night before!), one car still semi-submerged in Meadowhall car park and the stretch of wall missing alongside the River Don where the floodwater had punched through.
What stuck with me was the spirit and determination of the community, as well as the professionalism of our site staff. Working in this industry does take you all over the place and to many different communities. As experiences go though I think from that point on I had a greater appreciation for nature. And warm, dry wellies!
Principal Engineering Geologist at Jacobs
5 年A lot of water flowed that year and not where people expected it! I was working on some sewerage schemes around Gloucester which took most of the limelight back then. Abandoned our work around Gloucester football stadium as it was under water and the team have still never gone back even to this day!?
Geotechnical Associate Director at Cundall
5 年I remember that day too. I was on-site in the early stages of a flood defence construction scheme. Site was quickly flooded. Trains home were being cancelled due to landslips from the rain. Ended up with a taxi back up the M5 seeing all the stranded southbound traffic. At the time (before smart phones) I didn't realise how widespread the flooding had been and how many people had been affected.
Technical Principal at Mott MacDonald
5 年I pretty sure I remember that day unfolding! ?