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River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the first week of August 2013, tracking the on-going river bank alterations.
The prolonged dry weather is now apparent in the soil surface.
We would all experience the effects of, in Irish terms, a prolonged 'heatwave'.
Activity in this Slang area has been drastically curtailed in recent months. What work still being carried on seemed to involve endless shifting, and 'turning' of top spoil.
Despite the prolonged dry period, there is a slow, but constant, seepage of water from the upper banks, gathering along the lower riverbank shelf.
One has got to question the impact of such seepage on the integrity of the recently-constructed upper banks, especially the exposed slopes.
Some local activity now in recycling the large stones, gathered in cairns, down to the riverbed, with the apparent intention of influencing/changing the flow patterns, and thus preventing untoward debris build-up.
To paraphrase: 'Man proposes, but Nature disposes'.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken on the last full weekend of October 2014.
Throughout the days, it's a constant 2-way stream of Volvo trucks -- some bringing varying grades of hardcore down to the riverside to build up the rear of the steel wall - or removing previously laid temporary access shelf on the outside of the steel wall.
The guys are now actively rebuilding the riverbed itself: digging out the previous 'temporary' core material, and replacing with large, profiled boulders.
The intention being to (a) provide better habitat for fish stock, and (b) seek to slow the speed of river flow during periods of heavy rain and high river levels.
A neat job is being completed to landscape the ground in front of the apartments -- backfilling with stone and soil.
A protective guide-rail is being welded, in stages, to the top of the protruding steel wall, prior to capping with cement.
Irish Military Static Line Parachute Course
Members of the Irish Defence Force during the Military Static Line Parachute Course at the Defence Forces Training Centre – 29th March 2012
Photos: Sgt Paul Brady
Irish Military Static Line Parachute Course
Members of the Irish Defence Force during the Military Static Line Parachute Course at the Defence Forces Training Centre – 29th March 2012
Photos: Sgt Paul Brady
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the last full week of August 2014.
Work is now on-going in this area of the The Slang/Dargle River, involving: -- Site preparation and mobilisation comprising sheetpile flood defence walls.
The site preparation required the removal of mature trees and vegetation along the riverbank. Section-by-section, long lengths of steel sheet piling are aligned within a frame, and then driven partially into the bedrock by crane-suspended hydraulic hammers.
The guys were now working to reinforce the riverside of the sheetpiling, buttressing with large boulders, and an overlay of smaller gravel.
Work also started on the other side of the river, again driving sheet piles.
A new access ramp down to the riverbed was carved out to accommodate the extra pile driving. Other sub-contractors are now engaged in securing the riverbanks+sheet piles by drilling and securing rock anchors.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Houghton meets Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the
Government House.
L-R Adam Scott of Environmental Defence, Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada, Pipe Dreams filmmaker Leslie Iwerks and Host MP Olivia Chow.
PipeDreams © Linda Dawn Hammond / IndyFoto.com 2012, Free public screening of three documentaries- ‘Pipe Dreams’, on American opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline by filmmaker Leslie Iwerks, "This is not an Enbridge animation" by Vancouver production company Shortt and Epic, showing the beauty of the Douglas Channel and illustrating the Islands any tankers would have to navigate, in response to them having been conveniently "erased" from Enbridge's promotional material, and ‘The Pipedreams Project’, by Ryan Vandecasteyen & Faroe Des Roches, on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Canada. Oct.9, 2012,
The three videos were followed by a discussion on the contentious tar sands and pipeline projects by Canadian MP Olivia Chow, Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada, Adam Scott of Environmental Defence and Pipe Dreams filmmaker Leslie Iwerks.
In spite of the overly optimistic claim that public opinion has won and the deal is shelved, this is not over- the Canadian govt. is fast tracking the tar sands take-over by foreign interests such as China ( Nexen) and Malaysia, among others, and just approved Enbridge's tankers in the Douglas Channel m.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/enbridge-gets-supert...
The Harper government does not care about public opinion on this issue. It is apparently going ahead and to hell with Canada and the environment. Money is their master and they think only in dollars and yens (as opposed to SENSE).
'This is not an Enbridge animation'
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0BCdinqMvQ
‘The Pipedreams Project’
Why is this happening? Ask the people who voted Harper in with a majority- they are to blame. We are about to lose Canadian control over our natural resources because of this govt and that is not reversible. Who is going to clean up the inevitable bitumen spills when they occur? China? One thing I learned the other day is that bitumen doesn't float to the surface- it sinks- and the oil companies are unprepared as to how to clean it up once it leaks into a river system. At that point, it's already too late for the wildlife and plants in the region. Encouraging further oil/tar/bitumen sands development is not only endangering the immediate environment by eradicating the habitat of local animals and creating toxic tailing ponds where migratory birds land only to die, but adding to the global warming problem. Personally, I'm very concerned that Harper is about to OK the Nexen tar sands deal, opening us up to China owning our natural resources, and free trade with China leading to litigation down the road if we try to decline further projects. A China backed company sued Obama when they refused China ownership of a wind project located near a sensitive military installation. I heard somewhere the US is not happy with the prospect of a Canadian Nexen deal either...
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken in the first week of November 2014.
There is a noticeable drop-off in the level of activity on this site now.
There's still some finishing touches to the river bed itself, cosmetic work along the riverbank sides, and a jig-saw pattern of large boulders placed in mid-stream.
The main (final) focus will be on completing the profiles to the sheet-steel wall, securing the structure with poured concrete, and then the completion with the pre-fabricated stone capping.
The majority of operatives who attended through the summer months have since moved on to other sites/tasks.
And we can see a slow repatriation of heavy-duty equipment back to base.
The guys have attached steel frames to the recess of the sheet-steel uprights, prior to filling with concrete.
There's still a surprising amount of intricate manual work involved in completing tasks -- machines can only do so much
EXTENSION OF NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL USHAFA
Year of Purchase - 2014
Contract Value - N25,500,000
Cost of Purchase - N25,500,000
Market Value - N/A
Chief Petty Officer Clearance Diver Luke Graham, 42 from Cairns, QLD is a member of the explosive ordnance disposal team working at Multi National Base - Tarin Kot, Afghanistan.
Irish Military Static Line Parachute Course
Members of the Irish Defence Force during the Military Static Line Parachute Course at the Defence Forces Training Centre – 29th March 2012
Photos: Sgt Paul Brady
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the first week of October, 2016.
Still a high level of activity along this stretch of the riverbank, and especially around the Irish Rail bridge.
Throughout the summer, this is where the heavy-duty engineering works have been taking place.
This is a section of the flood protection scheme that I have pretty much ignored -- it's inconvenient for me to access, and others cover it much better.
Check out 'Turgidson'.
Standing on an access bridge, adjacent to the Bray Boxing Club (from whence sprang Katie Taylor, and others of illustrious note), looking back up the river, towards the town direction.
In the foreground is the Railway bridge, and in the distance we can see some construction works taking place on the Ravenswell Road, temporarily closed due to on-going works.
That is the site of the old Bray Golf Club -- hotly contested as a (potentially) poorly considered site for a shopping centre development complex, and still an area of ground that has to act as a flood plain in the event of tidal surges.
As well as raising a heightened flood protection wall, they've created an access ramp down to the riverside. Further temporary soil shelves have been laid to allow construction machines to work alongside the riverbed. That access is critical to pursue work on the nearby Irish Rail bridge.
The area in the background, site of the old Bray Golf course, is both a works compound and vehicle route for the transportation of material to/from the other sectors along the River Dargle involved in construction works.
The Irish Rail Bridge, Bray Harbour:
Phase 1 flood defence works to the Irish Rail bridge commenced in August 2016.
Phase 2 flood defence works will be completed during May to September 2017. This work is being undertaken directly by Irish Rail.
The work includes strengthening the integrity of the bridge by creating buttresses around the base of each pillar.
To do this they have to pile-drive sheets into the river bedrock.
The work is complicated by;
(a) the need not to damage or disturb in any way the actual bridge itself (Irish Rail train and DART carriages pass overhead on an hourly basis), (b) the confined spaces under the bridge, and (c) the twice-daily rising tides from Bray Harbour which spill upriver into the newly expanded basin.
Israeli Paratroopers from the Parachute Brigade during a field training exercise on the Golan Heights – 25th January 2012
Photo: Ofek Ron-Carmel
Israeli soldiers conducting search missions during the search for three missing teenagers June 16, 2014 in Halhul, West Bank. Israeli soldiers have so far detained more than 150 suspects in the search for three teenagers who went missing in Jewish settlements in the West Bank late last week.
Photos: Ilia Yefimovich
Irish Military Static Line Parachute Course
Members of the Irish Defence Force during the Military Static Line Parachute Course at the Defence Forces Training Centre – 29th March 2012
Photos: Sgt Paul Brady
Concrete armour units, forming a rubble mound breakwater defence, at the root of the Brighton marina east breakwater close to where it meets the beach.
Part of a set, Brighton Seafront at Night
Irish Military Static Line Parachute Course
Members of the Irish Defence Force during the Military Static Line Parachute Course at the Defence Forces Training Centre – 29th March 2012
Photos: Sgt Paul Brady
This is what it was all for, after eight longs months of training and a brutal 90km march, the young Paratroopers wear their red berets with pride.
At the end of the gruesome eight month training that recruits of the IDF’s Paratroopers Brigade have to complete their final challenge. Before the recruits will be fully fledged soldiers of the Paratrooper’s Brigade they have to finish their ‘Masa Kumta’, which translates to ‘Beret March’. This is an all night 90km march in full gear, through any kind of weather, at the end of which young Paratroopers receive their red berets. This signifies the end of their training and full admission to the active forces of the Paratrooper’s Brigade.
Photos:Israel Defence Force
Left to right: Elisabetta Trenta (Minister of Defence, Italy) with Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero (Permanent Representative to NATO, Italy) with Raimonds Bergmanis (Minister of Defence, Latvia)
Israeli soldiers are seen at the Gaza Strip on the border with Israel, Friday, March 26, 2010. The Israeli military says two soldiers have been killed in an exchange of fire with militants who were planting explosives along the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip.
The English Defence League (EDL) were outnumbered in Worcester by up to 500 counter protesters and onlookers who joined in and objected to their presence in the city.
Around only 20 EDL members turned up to their demonstration which had been called in opposition to the building of a new mosque.
Worcester Trades Union Council and various anti racist groups assembled where EDL were due to rally in the Corn markets.
A student also called a protest on the high street.
Muslim youth led local activists and onlookers in a confrontation at the EDL assembly point prompting members of the public and other activists to join in filling the whole of Broad Street.
The EDL (and the police facilitating them), were left with no where to go and a march could not take place.
The racist group was heavily surrounded by the police and contained away from the shopping centre in isolation further down the road.
A Bedouin soldier examines the ground for markings at the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip May 19, 2014 in Nahal-Oz, Israel. The IDF's tracking unit, mostly made up of Bedouin soldiers from 25 different tribes, was created in order to patrol for infiltrators and possible terror activity along Gaza/Israel border.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the second week of October, 2016.
Still continued traffic around the storage areas along The Slang/Rehills section of the river bank, though not as intense as the previous month. Mostly of the traffic now is involved in the shipping out of the mounds of soil.
Yea, really. Who knew!
When I look back at the images of this section during the summer months, it's baffling to see how much the clean contoured profile of the river bank terrace has changed (again).
Seems like every time they do this, and we believe it is a 'finished' piece of work, they confound us later by ripping it up all over again.
I know there is value in maintaining this area as a smooth accessible strip. But the degree of attention they apply to this is then wasted by the randomness with which they undo all the previous work.
I call it the 'Biggest Sandpit/Playarea' in Wicklow, in Leinster, in Ireland.