The waters recede...

This week workmen from the County Council were using high-pressure hoses to cut up five feet of compacted mud that had accumulated in a soakaway in Duxford, causing the drains to fail at Bustlers Rise in January. We had a site visit there a few weeks back.  At the same time Cambridge Water were repairing a fractured main that had created a perennial pool at London Road, Pampisford, and major repairs to the ford at Hinxton started.  Water along Cambridge Road, at the Abingtons, had finally been drained away, although investigation has thrown up the need for underlying repair work.

As Thriplow Daffodil Weekend begins, tthe evenings are lighter and Saturday mornings hum with lawnmowers being started, heralding the arrival of spring, so the constant rain and floods in January  seem an age away.

But the fact that repair work is still going on, in the places I have described above, and many others, shows just how much a strain the weather placed on the county infrastructure this winter - even though it was so mild, with hardly a hint of snow or ice. 

I will be working with the county to see how best to ensure resiliance - so that if we have a repeat performance, things are in good order. One thing I saw this afternoon at the highways depot, was the way that spatial maps on the county database are building up a better picture of the infrastructure, rather than relying on dusty drawings in filing cabinets, and folk memory.

Now, in the drier weather, we need to turns the county's attention to potholes and road repairs.