Action plan for Drains

We did mop ups in various streets. There are a 5 to do in back lanes which will be hand dug over the next few weeks. The next task is to keep them up to the high standard and I am meeting with the council to do this later in the week such an improved kerb sweeping service. We can all play our part in this too by kicking away leaves from the covers if we see them.

I wish to say a huge thank you to the crew that have worked very hard with me on Saturdays to get there. They are very good people indeed and it has been a privilege to learn from them. The department is clearly under resourced as are most cleaning functions in the council. The drain clearing programme was funded by paying the crew from the community budget to work overtime. Right or wrong, that is a battle for another day but at least now after 8 months intensive work, we in Uplands have the cleanest drains in the whole city.

Today we completed our last street - Gwydr Crescent. We also completed a 17 drain system in the lane behind Gwydr and Beechwood Road. We also made clearances where parked cars were previously blocking drains.

I think we should be finished with one more session.

Thanks to the council team today who worked with me under difficult conditions on a very hot day!!

Today we reached a huge milestone. We now have over double the Uplands drains working from when we started in December (48% working). After 872 clearances 96 percent work.

We started the first of the 3 mop up sessions today where we revisited streets with drains previously obstructed by parked cars.

Clearances were made in Bonville Terrace, Rosehill, Brooklands Terrace, Hanover Street, St James' Gardens, Glanmor Road, Cambridge St, Edgeware Rd, St Alban's Road and Bay View Terrace.

The drain on the corner of Rosehill and Brooklands Terrace was reinstated. I spotted by using the map that it had been covered by road resurfacing 12 years ago. It has now been excavated and water can now flow down it.

 There was a lot of focus on lanes today: These included, the one between St Helen's Ave and King Edward Road, between Victoria Terrace and Rhyddings Park Road, the one that links the Uplands Car wash with Ernald Place.

All but three are now are now working on the Bay View Terrace Bay View Crescent and Victoria Terrace system. We had access problems due to parked vehicles on these. We finished with clearances on Ernald Place, Rhyddings Park Road, Gwydr Cres and the shops end of Beechwood Road.

On this shift we cleared 42 drains and over 80% of Uplands drains now function. We started with a couple of missed clearances on Walter Road and St James' Crescent before a single job in Westbury Lane.

We then continued to St Helen's Avenue and Cresent including the rear lane between the two. Most are functioning save a couple now on these streets which should alleviate most of the pooling at the junctions.

We finished with Gorse Lane. The blockage outside the St Helen's Ground / Patti car park needs further investigation. The two drains are now functioning but the carrier pipe needs to be jetted for the manhole at the other end. We will try and get a team to lift the manhole in the week as it is seized so that we can proceed. Also one drain has a generous layer of tarmac inside which will require a jackhammer to access the outlet pipe. 

28 drains were cleared. We focussed on the important job of clearing Brynymor Crescent. These blockages have had a major effect on the Brynymor Road below. We also cleared most of the blockages in Eaton Crescent. All drains have now been cleared except for the very top one on the Belgrave Court side. An carrier pipe has been damaged due to BT works. This will be remedied. The drain on the corner of Nyanza Terrace and Eaton Crescent now works but some of the water is still diverting onto the footpath via the dropped kerb due to resurfacing. Again a solution will be found. All drains on Brynymor Road were cleared except one including the ones at the entrances to Westbury and and Catherine Streets. Despite gallant efforts by residents to keep cars off drains we will have to revisit Bonville Terrace again to clear the 3 blockages at the base. There are also 3 in Eaton Crescent to visit for the same reason. Finally we had to smash the seized cover at the bottom of the service road which runs past Dumbarton House Court and a replacement is on its way.

Today we tied up a few loose ends and cleared 23 drains, starting with the final drain on The Grove which was previously obscured with parked cars. Then onto the inner kerb of the Richmond Road, Hillside Crescent loop.

Drains were then cleared on Terrace Road at the top of the Ffynone Drive link as well as the section of 136-148 Terrace Road. Both drains function but the area needs to be dug and swept so that water can travel to the drain.

We moved on to clear the twin system at the top gate of Cwmdonkin Park as well as buried drain in the single track section of Penlan Crescent on the park edge. This is now running slowly but will need a rodding eye to jet the pipe.

We then cleared a 5 drain system at top of Notts Gardens by the entrance to Dylan's View.

Finally we cleared the top section of Glanmor Road between Penlan Crescent and Broadway including the twin drains at the base of Lon Cedwyn and Lon Cynfor respectively.

Most drains  are now functioning in Mount Pleasant except for one drain in Penmaen Terrace which needs a rodding eye so that it can be jetted. We cleared the 6 blockages in Fairfield Terrace, where we  found a wormery.

The major project of the day was clearing an 11 drain run on one side of Penygraig Road between Dyfed Avenue and Terrace Road junctions. All drains were completely full and the opportunity had not been taken to solve this when the road was recently resurfaced. In fact we had found tarmac with fresh double yellow lines painted on it half way down a chamber. 

The 5 on the other side have now been cleared as a separate job as they needed Traffic Management due to the dangerous of access.

We decided to unblock 3 drains in the Townhill ward on the link road to Llewelyn Circle. The run off from these blockages was sending a flow across Penygraig Road and down the hill. Not doing this would undo the work that we had done. One of these drains needs an eye so that the pipe can be jetted.

Today we did a morning clearance session on a couple of back lanes: The one behind Gwydr Crescent including Uplands Crescent and the top lane off Marlborough Road.

The team had to work hard as these drains are inaccessible by the truck. They had to be hand dug with the soil bagged up and carried to the truck. All in all we cleared 10 in lanes and a couple on the highway.

This continues our project to get our back lanes cleaner and more walkable.