Bela.I have done the best that I can. I have sent the following letter in the public interest by e-mail to the listed people as shown below:To:Martin Smith, Chief Executive of Ealing Council (smithm@ealing.gov.uk; chiefexecutive@ealing.gov.uk)Judith Hackitt CBE Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Chair (advice@hse.gsi.gov.uk)Julian Bell Councillor, Leader of the Ealing Labour Group and Ealing Council (julian.bell@ealing.gov.uk)Greg Stafford Coucillor, Leader of the Ealing Conservative Group and Leader of the Opposition of Ealing Council (gregory.stafford@ealing.gov.uk)Gary Malcolm, Councillor, Leader of the Ealing Liberal Democrat Group (gary.malcolm@ealing.gov.uk)Mark Mathieson Managing Director, Networks, Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution, Ltd. (customer.relations.england@sse.com)Les Dawson, OBE, Chairman of J Murphy and Sons Ltd. (mail@murphygroup.co.uk)(Reference SSE- LPOE2BR)Re: Concerns about the 66Kv National Grid Raplacement Project in South Ealing, London W5 where Popes Lane joins South Ealing Road. Dear Sirs/Madams,I am writing to you to express the concern of some local residents about the work being done on Popes Lane in Ealing by Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD)Ltd., and its contractors J Murphy and Sons Ltd., to install 66Kv transmission lines. Bearing in mind that this is a major road that affects the economy, livelihood,, and well-being of the immediate area significant concerns raised include:The rate of progress of the project and the significant periods of inactivity. The road had been closed for a week-and-a-half now and one portion is being dug up for the third time. The same piece had to be dug up twice as it would appear that a drain making a longtitudonal incursion into the trench had not been properly surveyed leading the trench to be filled in again and re-dug a foot over. The work as it stands on Tuesday afternoon could probably have been en-acted in one 24 hour, three shift, period of activity by one team if the road had been properly surveyed initially.At close of play on Tuesday there was 33m of ducting in place with the contents of the trench to house this re-route once and filled and then unfilled three times and a further 5m of trench dug for further ducting. This represents seven working days, or by tomorrow morning nine elapsed days and nine elapsed nights. At this rate when will the project be finished?There is concern that drains have been dug through and not replaced and remain damaged.That inaccurate surveying is taking place without people entering the manhole chambers along the road as part of the process as there are marks by the manholes along the line of: sw ??, fw??, and "presumably". The inaccurate surveying seems to have resulted in the ducts running in one direction to begin with, and then having to be "curved around" to compensate for an unsurveyed drain instead of running in a straight run to begin with in the right direction, something that will make cable pulling harder.In the first 150m of surveying carried out on the Sunday night when the road was first closed there is no evidence of the use of Ground Penetrating radar, and there still appears to have been no use of this technology in the this first 150m probably accounting for the slow progress of the project, though there is evidence of the use of GPR in the subsequent 150m of the road surveyed in the past few days. However, the indications of the survey are not good for the haphazard way that trenches are being putting in, then filled with rubble when obstructions are found, and then re-dug only to find more obstructions. For some of this second road portion it is notable that high voltage are present on one side of the road and low voltage cables on the other side of the road with drain manholes down the middle meaning that no trench is going to be able to go in without digging something else up (electrical or drainage) and then re-routing it over or under the new ducts. What is also less-than-comforting that one manhole outside Travis Perkins in the middle of the road is marked "unable to lift". Combined with the earlier instances in the first survey tranch where the manholes function was questioned or not known one wonders whether the survey team is properly equipped with the appropriate equipment to lift and enter stuck manhole covers?One wonders if perhaps a proper survey of the road along Popes Lane using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and other methods before the shallow short section trench was chosen might have been appropriate in anticipating any unexpected problems.I am concerned that the depth of the ducting at around one metre may be too shallow to distribute the weight of the twenty plus tonne articulated lorries that use that road as earth arching is non-existant at this depth. What is more the trench above the ducting is being filled rubble which is comprised of a range of rocks a lot of which are five-six-seven centimetres in size and would not distribute weight, or indeed settle in the same way, as say, 20N ballast/hardcore would, instead tramsmitting force from rock to rock in certain places and settling unevenly and further over time, even when compacted as vibration from heavy traffic affects them.That health and safety guidelines are not being observed as shuttering is not being used to line the trenches while men are working in them to lay ducts and to compact the dry mix around the ducts with a hand-operated mechanical petrol-driven whacker. Furthermore mechanical diggers and dumper trucks are operating along the edge of this trench.That the electrical and HDD ducts being installed are often broken but are installed there anyway. This brings with it the danger of duct collapse due to the weakened and non-circular nature of the broken duct, the entry of excess water bringing with it clay, silt and stones which can block ducts leading to costly unblocking, digging-up and delays in cable deployment. There is also the nicety of providing access holes for cable-chewing rodents. Furthermore, with time the clay/soil/silt/stones over the hole can be carried away by water and/or mechanical vibration from the traffic above to create small sinkholes leading to the collapse of larger areas of the road surface and the related accident risk of vehicles driving into the depressions or holes.That the ducts are being broken by creative (and unsafe) loading techniques where a truck with ducts has its tailgate dropped and the driver is instructed to drive along so that the ducts fall off the truck shattering in the process of so-doing.That the project is possibly not being correctly reported through the chain-of-command as on asking one the staff (who approached me) at the site why the same bit of road was being dug up for the third time (having been filled in twice already - the first time to re-route the duct trench) the member of staff said: "We, this company, (as he points to ta Murphy badge on his chest) have only dug up this once" even though this was the third time the excavator was digging up the same ten metres!Overall, the project seems to be chaotically, if not incompetantly managed and it would seem unlikely that Popes Lane will be re-opened within the month of planned closure. Work proceeds at an average of a few working hours per working day (which includes a few hours thrown in here and there outside normal working hours), nevertheless long periods of idle time (ranging from a few hours to several hours at a time) during normal work hours is common. For example, on the second day of the project the only activity seen during the working day for several hours was a gentleman putting up "Murphy" signs on the fencing around the portion of the road fenced off for work.Furthermore, the junction at the South Ealing Road has a complex north-south deployment of main gas, water, drainage and sewerage services including an 18inch to 24 inch medium pressure gas main, two eight-to-twelve inch low pressure gas mains, two eight-to-twelve inch water mains, as well as the four inch pipes for gas and water feeding the premises on the local streets. This is without taking into account the telecommunications, drainage, and sewerage infrastructure. We believe that the present one metre depth of the top of the ducting will directly "cut through" many of these services. The junction is very heavily used and the two-storey, loose-filled nature of the ducting deployment as evidenced in Popes Lane will have a lot of "give" in it which will degrade quickly with the heavy traffic. The though of a petrol tanker driving into a sinkhole created by a hole in a damaged duct and "going up" with a 66kV electrical event caused by a breached cable is not a very comfortable one.For further input into your planning I would urge that you read the relevant section "Update to Popes Lane Closure" of the discussion Forum attached to the Ealing Today news and community website. http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=community&link=http://appasp.EalingToday.co.uk/server/app/forum/default.asp?site=2Local residents have been poorly informed as to what is happening and people livng next to the sectioned-off area where work is taking place have not all received letters sent out.Another aspect of safety is the lack of "foot traffic only" and "cyclists dismount" signs at either end of the enclosre which is leading to cyclists turning the pavements on either side of the work into rat runs competing with pedestrians. The cyclists seem unable to translate the fact that cycling of pavements is illegal into this situation where the road is closed. Some cyclists come out at speed from the pavement at the Popes Lane junction and shoot across the junction even when the lights are against them.I would like to bring this matter to your attention in the hope that some appropriate scrutiny may be applied to the project.Yours sincerely,Neil F. Weber.
Neil F. Weber ● 4256d