The guys from TMS are well ahead of schedule and reckon they will be finished by the end of the week. Three years to plan and two weeks to execute – unbelievable! I was fortunate to go out to the island yesterday to see how things are progressing and discuss the finish of the top surface with Hylton (Contract Manager) and James (Landscape Architect). It gave me the opportunity to look at the construction in detail.

The western village end is up to its forth and final geo-grid layer and just needs surface material. Although the specification stated 250mm topsoil over the whole island I considered this excessive as we only want wetland vegetation to establish and no trees. Probably 50mm – 100mm would be sufficient considering the nature of the base.

I thought the eastern (dam) end should be left bare to create a beach effect. We may perhaps attract terns or Ringed Plover to breed. This section is only up to its first layer but will be covered with 75mm-dust material that is being used to infill the island behind the rock perimeter.  The section between the two original islands was challenging because it was so soft. Here a lot of silt had to be dug out to get a firm base and this silt was mixed with the infill material. Some of the stakes were removed and re-positioned to create a new outline and the island is significantly larger than it was before.