16 August 2008
Broadway roundabout is unique among the five underpasses on the Westlink in that two live rivers run beside it - the Clowney Water a few metres to the west, and the Blackstaff adjacent to the east.
The problem is that these rivers are underground and therefore have a fixed capacity. Despite the construction of a large overflow chamber under Broadway roundabout, the fact that the design has now failed so disastrously just six weeks after opening suggests fundamental design flaws in terms of its ability to handle this type of heavy and persistent rain, that has become more frequent in recent years.
The author of the 17 August report comments:
I spoke to some contractors on the site. They insisted that there was no design fault with the underpass and that it had simply been overwhelmed by an extreme weather event. Certainly it would be hard to conceive of a pumping system or overflow chamber that could hold back 20 million gallons of water.
Still, with climate change now a reality, weather events like this are no longer uncommon I do feel it is valid to ask whether the design is at least "too optimistic" in terms of the amount of water likely to come down the Clowney and Blackstaff Rivers.
When the Broadway roundabout last flooded (December 2007) it was caused by the same river overflowing at the same spot. Only the fact that the underpass had not been excavated prevented a flood of this scale.
It could be that this is not the first time we see the Broadway underpass submerged in water and the ensuing chaos.
Monday, 18 August 2008
More on the Belfast Floods
Antrim Network Scouts take on the Scally Rally
What is it?
The Scally Rallys website describes it best by saying
'Scally Rally is a European banger Rally and driving challenge... but there's a catch ! To enter Scally Rally your car must have cost you £100 (or less). We did say it was a challenge!! There will be a maximum of 100 teams taking part."
The car we have chosen is an excellent piece of Germany engineering a, 93 VW Passat
I am pleased to say that on Saturday, its passed its mot and is now fully road legal and ready to race, after we add our sponsors Bitbuzz and Lester Engineering that is.
The Race which is being ran as a fund raiser for Charity starts in Belfast's Titanic Quarter is taking place in the following stages, all following coastal routes
* Belfast to Letterkenny
* Letterkenny to Westport
* Westport to Tralee
* Tralee to Cork where it finishes
We will then continue on up the coast, stopping in Dublin before heading home to close the loop in Belfast!
Im looking forward to it, with 131,000 miles on the car so far, another 1500 shouldnt bother it to much!
Sunday, 17 August 2008
The rain came, But what went wrong?
Meanwhile in Belfast, a greater disaster was underway, our Newly opened Westlink Underpass was in trouble. After just a few hours of rain (heavy rain) it started to fill up like a swimming pool.
A 30ft swimming pool at that! The roads service reckons it now contains some 20million gallons of water as the Clowney river overflowed into it. It is thought that it will not be reopen for Monday morning rush hour traffic. What a typical Northern Irish disaster!
First we decide to build a new road, and instead of giving the contact to the dutch who by the way would have build it for half the cost and in less time, we go local and as usual fuck it up!
Yes I agree that we had more rain that normal but we could have been in better shape to prepare for this, The road in only new and built where an underground river once ran, the first thing that should have been addressed when designing this, was flooding!
In my opinion, the roads service and the contractors need to get back to the drawing board and sort this mess out, The contractors should be made pay to fix this not the public and as for the huge bonuses paid for completing the job early... what a laugh!
Why as a country are we not prepared for rough weather, most of our sewage systems have not been upgraded since the 1930s and know one seems to fully in charge of 'flooding' its seems to be a joint effort between the roads agency, the DOE, fire service, Water service and the rivers agency to clear up and assign the blame to every one else, Why is there not one central agency to deal with this?
Last week when I was at the 100 year Celebration of Scouting in Ireland, we had to put evacuation procedures into place when the site where 12,000 Scouts where camping flooded badly due to an unforcasted amount of rainfall. During this evacuation I got to spend some time working closely with the Irish Civil Defence a voulenteer organisation of 6000 people trained to act quickly and cope with national disaster such as flooding, air raid and nuclear attacks.
After further researching the Civil Defence, they are a fantastic organisation and in fact operation not only in Ireland but make up a world wide organisation of people committed in protect thier local enviroment in times of disaster.
People like this exist in Northern Ireland, but they are infact not past of organisation but just merly looking out for thier neighbours, Like the four farmers than took to there tractors yesterday evening and closed the airport road for fears of people getting stranded in the floods. However altho they where simply looking out for the good of mankind, by closing the road, floods or not they where breaking the law. I think we in Northern Ireland need to get real and look at how things are run in Ireland, now that we dont have the hugh resorces of the British Military at hand some restructuring in much needed. I like the civil defence, what they stand for and how they operate. We need something like this! Now!
Friday, 15 August 2008
Jamboree Staff Singing Final Version
This is the theme tune for this years Jamboree, this song will haunt my dreams for quite some time!
The stig is taken out by a couple of Scouts
Yes indeed, The Stig this year received an award for services to instruction, but it appears he has a fear of scouts and entered into a battle to the death that not even he could win!
Interesting!! Even more interesting is that Richard Hammond has applied for the volunteer role of Chief Scout to replace Peter Duncan when his tenement in the role ends this year.
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