Tony has sent me a couple of images from the last cruise and two taken yesterday on Millbrook Lake. The lake is gradually filling up from the inflow and will probably be almost full by Monday depending upon how much rain we have over the weekend

The final stages of the project. With the island complete the digger tracked back across the causeway removing the boards and cleaning them off. All that’s left is to restore the lake bank and access path.

Yesterday I installed 2 new interpretation boards next to the path on the north side of the lake.  One illustrates some of the commoner birds and the other, some of the trees that can be found. The artwork was drawn by Devon based artist Mike Langman who regularly illustrates for the RSPB. The boards were designed by Freeline Graphics of Exeter and manufactured by Shelley Signs.

The final countdown! The digger is now off the island and finishing the north bank that was used for access. Its looking good now I and can’t wait to see the water back in. Congratulations to all – excellent job, well done. Click on thumbnails for full size image    

Today we looked at the finish material and the what the island will look like. Its taken 160 tonnes of 150mm – 100mm perimeter stone and 180 tonnes of 75mm – 6mm infill stone that has brought the island up by a metre. Although originally I thought not to plant any trees, I have re-considered and will put in some Osiers that can be coppiced on a rotational basis. This will prevent them from growing to large when they would […]

The island is nearing completion. The western section has more soil and branch cover added and the eastern section is being surfaced with 75mm – 6mm stone aggregate to create a beach effect that will be attractive to roosting waders. The final work will be done on Monday 2nd December, building up the area where access to the island has been gained. This will be done from the causeway. Click on thumbnails for full size image.

The work on the island is still ahead of schedule and the site manager is hoping to finish on Monday (2nd December). The images show how the work is progressing. The western section is up to the final level some of the excavated silt is being graded in with the 75mm-6mm stone aggregate. Soil has been graded across the top to provide a growing medium for wetland vegetation. Branch material has been laid across to provide temporary shelter.     […]

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 […]

Given a couple of days of fine weather work is progessing steadily. The first layer of geogrid mesh is in place and rock infill is progressing.      

The lake was drained and the sluice gates closed to enable access to the island. First task was to lay timber tracking to get the digger onto the island (2 days) and then initial levelling, removing  a 2 metre strip behind the existing posts to place the geotextile matting.                 click on thumbnails for full size image