simonrl
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17 years ago
"Hatstand" wrote:

have had a couple of divers approach me at our club who might be interested in a mission to recover the bridge - if the offer is of interest then let me know and we can arrange something.



Sounds a very good idea to me, would be happy to come along and carry stuff.

Also the ropes are in a deteriorating condition again, rigging the second one with a rebelay would help and the first rope needs some more serious rope protection.

I know the rebelay issue was raised before and opinion was split; the route gets so much traffic can it be assumed everybody through can negotiate one?

I'd also really like to clean up the CoH and remove all those dead boats. That's perhaps the job out of those three that I'm best qualified for. Garbage recovery

[tweak]Hatstand - I've moved this to a new thread since it was a bit lost in the rescue thread[/tweak]
my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by
PeteHall
17 years ago
You should find that nearly all the dead boats are out of the big lake, we gathered them up the other weekend and pulled a couple right out of the mine. We left the rest in the passage on the Rhosydd side.
The distance between stupidity and genius is measured only by success.
Barney
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17 years ago
The bridge itself has snapped in half on one side, so there is a lot more to it than just recovering it, and of course sorting out the miles of steel cable that was used in its construction. Getting it out is the easy bit, repairing and ressurecting is going to be difficult.
Vanoord
17 years ago
I have 67m of wire rope sat in this very office, not to mention several tensioners and some really trick maillons :)

When are we going to do it?!

And shall someone try and contact Paul Fessi who is, I think, the person who built the bridge in the first place...
Hello again darkness, my old friend...
simonrl
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17 years ago
"Vanoord" wrote:

And shall someone try and contact Paul Fessi who is, I think, the person who built the bridge in the first place...



I certainly think that would be the decent thing to do 🙂 And I certainly hope that Hatstand and his friends have more engineering competence than me and Vanoord :lol: Or this resurrected bridge might not last very long 😉
my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by
Barney
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17 years ago
I reckon the old bridge should be used as parts with 2 new wires erected first then the salvagable base of the bridge hung from it then secured in place. Would save a lot of hassle trying to hang and tension the whole lot in one go. Bear in mind though that one of the sides has snapped in half, can be seen in the picture towards the top right ish.
Hatstand
17 years ago
Morning

I don't recall suggesting anything would be easy, nor that I or anyone associated with me was particularly gifted in the engineering department! :lol:

I was merely passing on an offer by a couple of divers to retreive the bridge - after a very successful North Wales weekend a couple of years back they had expressed an interest in doing the trip, and upon learning the bridge had *sunk* offered to get it out as part of said expedition.

Sounds to me like a fun weekend however if done in conjunction with those willing to rebuild it 😎 (and someone on hand to retreive any butter fingered kit at the same time!!

If there is some interest I can go find the chaps back at the club next time I'm up (good grief was it last AGM they first mooted it??) and see if they still fancy it.

Does anyone know accurately how deep the debris is?

Hat

Vanoord
17 years ago
Shallow enough that decompression won't be a problem 🙂
Hello again darkness, my old friend...
Hatstand
17 years ago
"Vanoord" wrote:

Shallow enough that decompression won't be a problem :)



Thats groovy but I wondered if anyone knew more precisely - only because its the main question I get asked about it by the divers!
Vanoord
17 years ago
At very worst about 6-8m, but if they're feeling excited, they'll be able to go as deep as they wish as the chamber will go down a couple of floors, beyond their limits :)

The issue will be having divers who can do SRT, plus moving tanks and weights to the water, which involves two abseils.

I suspect it may be easiest to go into the water in the chamber before and duck under if a link exists as that will cut out the zipwire, in which case budget for 15m.


(You may guess from this that I've dived at some point in the past, but having nearly drowned in Scotland in February, I'm not doing it again unless it's tropical!)
Hello again darkness, my old friend...
Hatstand
17 years ago
"Vanoord" wrote:

The issue will be having divers who can do SRT, plus moving tanks and weights to the water, which involves two abseils.



This, will not be an issue! :thumbsup:
Barney
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17 years ago
I think we agreed that it was a max of 8 metres, i guaged this from a boat whilst shouting directions to everybody!
mountainpenguin
17 years ago
This sounds like fun !!!
another carrier here. provided its when i am fit enough.
Oh and a rebelay would be a good idea.
Captain Scarlet
17 years ago
"mountainpenguin" wrote:


Oh and a rebelay would be a good idea.



The rate at which the installed ropes have deteriorated in CRTT is surprising. Ideally, a deviation (on both pitches one and two) would have been the best option, but unfortunately, quite impossible to rig. This leaves the option of rebelays which would be the perfect solution in this case. Anything else is a compromise.
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Miles
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17 years ago
Having been the head sherpa that got a load of dive gear to the water in Oakeley (bottom of Ch34 inc) from lake level, I can say it was quite difficult and do the same with SRT pitches too, and a zip-crossing would really be quite a mission. It could certainly be done, but it'll be a challenge.

When the bridge was there people did complain a lot about how it 'spolit it', I thought people would be happy to see it go though personally I really liked it. Recovering it, then re-installing it, even after all the dive gear is got on site, will be a heck of a project.

I know the options have all been discussed to death but if it was down to me, I'd just put another zip line in instead, assuming there is somewhere good to anchor to at the inbye shore. Mind you the bridge was attached to something?

MM

I do have
Vanoord
17 years ago
"Miles" wrote:

When the bridge was there people did complain a lot about how it 'spolit it', I thought people would be happy to see it go though personally I really liked it. Recovering it, then re-installing it, even after all the dive gear is got on site, will be a heck of a project.

I know the options have all been discussed to death but if it was down to me, I'd just put another zip line in instead, assuming there is somewhere good to anchor to at the inbye shore. Mind you the bridge was attached to something?



Ah yes, this is one idea that I favoured to some extent :)

The bridge is still anchored at the Rhosydd end, to a boulder that's sat on the floor - thus, to use this as a zip wire would involve people getting very wet. The only way of rigging a zip would be to have it going upwards, so you'dhave to pull yourself up it - not actually a problem and a bit more variety.

I suspect the most sensible approach would be to see ifthe bridge can be reinstalled and if not, to put in either an uphill zip or a parallel wire traverse.

With regard to your last sentence, I think I know how it would have finished: do you know if he has any intentions or thoughts as to what should happen?
Hello again darkness, my old friend...
Miles
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17 years ago
yeah sorry I forgot to complete my post :D

Err yes I was going to say I have the chaps email address who built the thing. Nice bloke, not spoke to him in a while. Could always ask him what he thinks :angel:
Hatstand
17 years ago
I did wonder what state the roof was in over where the bridge was and whether it was likely to suffer a repeat performance should anyone go to the effort of rebuilding it.

a traverse around the side of the chamber anyone? There isn't one of them on the route any more... (Didn't someone suggest re-rigging the old traverse as an alternative to the zip wire?? :thumbsup: )

mountainpenguin
17 years ago
The old traverse is still rigged, or at least is was november last year. Its quite doable.

Vanoord
17 years ago
"Miles" wrote:

Err yes I was going to say I have the chaps email address who built the thing. Nice bloke, not spoke to him in a while. Could always ask him what he thinks :angel:



That would be very good of you ;)

"mountainpenguin" wrote:

The old traverse is still rigged, or at least is was november last year. Its quite doable.



Indeed - and it's a lot more fun than the zip wire 🙂
Hello again darkness, my old friend...
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