Do I smell gas?

No, actually but I have been talking to the gas engineers working on a large hole outside the Aurora. There is the usual gaggle of vans and barriers.

There has been work going on for a couple of weeks now but because of the cladding wrap it is difficult for me to keep up with it. Mind you, the cold weather hasn’t helped! I was out and about yesterday so took the chance to have a chat with them. We were all standing (well, me sitting of course) around this big hole in the ground.

So, this is what I have been told. There is a gas leak (!) on the corner of Patteson Road but the scaffolding is right on top of it. As you can see, there is a very large gas pipe coming across the front of the Aurora from Capstan House. They thought that they just had to put one of their robots in. This would scurry down the pipe spraying sealant as it goes – job done. Unfortunately, there was a problem. Can you see this little 2″ (50mm) pipe sticking up?

Well, this is actually the end of a pipe that goes down through the large pipe and connected elsewhere. This meant that the robot couldn’t get down there. They tried going further down but there is a similar pipe near to the corner of the road. Deadlock. They are thinking about it. As you may know, the site on which Orwell Quay complex is built is the site of the old Gas Works so this large pipe is one of the main feeds (I think).

As a little aside; they ran the robot the other way and did a precautionary spray along without any issues. All I can say is, watch this space. I will give more when I know more. I have to say that they are very relaxed about all this so I don’t think that there are any issues to worry us.

I have acquired a map of the waterfront that lists all the traditional wars and quay names so I will publish that in a future post. On last bothering thought. A comment was made that they can’t get under the scaffolding until it comes down in- wait for it – October. I hope that this is wrong. My last update was June/July do I need to talk to Carters to find out more.