Pipeline – connection Take Two 2011.03.27

Sunday, 19 March 2011

Last time when we opened the valve we noticed water oozing out of the soil on the road which of course indicated a further leak so we needed to move the main connection to the other side of the road.

I had dug a trench there already the previous outing and had not been able to locate the pipe but when we arrived today Neil had already found it by digging a little further and we helped getting the connection ready.

A nice anecdote: the saw I am using was given to me by Ellie’s uncle in Springbok in 1973. He used it to trim asbestos sheeting when he built churches there. At last I had a use for it.

In the meantime Neil dismantled the pieces on the other side of the road and we shoved the MDPE pipe through.

It all got nicely assembled using sticky tape and brute force and then we moved our attention further down the line to the manhole by the quarry where Neil connected the pipe we had laid previously, ably assisted by Sue, and we started extending the metal pipe and clearing bush to prepare for the crossing of what we now call “Gibson’s Gulch”

Of course we had to turn the water on again just to get the satisfaction of seeing the result of the progress we had made. We will use the metal pipe for as far as we can to protect the MDPE pipe and then a combination of digging in and stones to prevent damage from the inevitable fire.