Torbay's Rock Walk Exhibition

Torbay Council recently tried to whip up a little interest and excitement in Rock Walk by holding an Exhibition. For a couple of days it was on show in the Princess Theatre which is in the firing line if any 20 tonne rocks roll down the cliff. Then it was moved to the Library in Lymington Rd. This is it.

Not very exciting is it? The top bit has a few photos of Rock Walk as it was and the bottom bit shows an impression of what it will look like when it is finished. The work is expected to cost over a million quid so economies have to be taken where ever possible. The board on the right with the coloured bits of paper are for viewers, if the can contain their excitement, to express their comments, make suggestions and ask questions. I even went so far as to stick a little coloured sticker myself.

There is no sign of an existing foot path (see above) in the new plans and I asked why not. In the new plans there only seems to be one path up then the same path down. Surely we need two paths otherwise there could just possibly a bit of a bottleneck in busy times. And it's more interesting having more than one pathway. Mind who the planers may just see my question, realise they have missed out a vital part of the redevelopment and write me a nice letter thanking me. It could also add a few thousand pounds to the cost.

Netting the Cliff

I took this photo to show the workers removing soil and rock debris from the cliff face. It was only when I looked at the photo on the computer did I notice that part of the cliff had already got netting covering it. Once the vegetation has grown a little it will be extremely hard to see. Which should put one or two peoples' minds at rest, I had been told by some that the netting would look a bit of a mess.

Still Dangerous

The blue barrier was erected by ISCA Scaffolding on the instruction of Torbay Council to protect passing walkers and drivers from falling rocks. And there have been a few over the past months. Now Vertical Technology have started their work to make the cliff face safe. At the moment his work involves workers hanging from ropes cutting back the vegetation that has grown up since last spring and also removing any scrub and vine roots, and dislodging any rocks that might fall from the face. To protect the trees at the base of the cliff wooden barriers were built round them. In the picture you can see 3 trees have barriers but the fourth tree doesn't. This is because there have been so many loose rocks dislodged that the barrier was blown away. Most of the rocks were no bigger than footballs and the tree seems to have survived. The blue barrier does get in the way of taking photos of the base of the cliff, to see what's down there you have to catch a bus and nip upstairs and hope the driver drives slowly past. Mind you it does stop rocks coming in through the bus windows.

OK not a brilliant picture but I couldn't get the driver to drive slowly, some of them just don't know how to drive at less than 30 mph.

Worker Injured on Rock Walk

One of the workers cutting back the vegetation whilst hanging half way down the cliff face was hit by falling debris. He was taken by ambulance to Torbay Hospital with neck injuries. He was waering a hard hat at the time and the injuries were consistant with compression of the neck due to a heavy weight landing on his head.
Construction company Vertical Technology is carrying out work on the site to remove loose debris.Site supervisor Paul Cook said: "There was an incident here on Friday. It involved a rope access technician who was struck on the head by some loose rock.
"He was evacuated from the site by the emergency services and taken to Torbay Hospital."
Mr Cook added: "The kind of injury he suffered is what we would expect from being hit on the head in this line of work.
"He was wearing a hard hat and all safety procedures were in place.
"Vertical Technology are investigating the incident in conjunction with the health and safety department of Torbay Council."
He continued: "It is the first time in 15 years a worker from Vertical Construction has been injured at work."
He said they have already tightened up working procedures at Rock Walk to ensure the safety of the workforce and prevent a similar accident happening again.

So far in all the work that has been carried out here there have been no serious accidents. The worker involved is now recuperating at home and hopefully will soon be fit enough too return to work.

Nice Hanging around in the Sun

One team have already been over this area hacking away with chain saws at the larger vegetation. Now a second team are covering the same ground to remove anything that might get in the way of the netting that will be placed over this area.

It looks quite pleasant on a sunny day but winter is coming and wind and rain will make this job much more difficult. Especially all the way up there.

Work To Start November 10th.

WORK starts on clearing and shoring up Torquay's Rock Walk next week. Starting Monday 10 Nov 2008



The company which won the £1million six-month contract to stabilise the cliff face will be setting up site facilities and expects to start work proper on clearing vegetation and loose material off the rocks during the following week.
A substantial area of the rock face will be covered with rock-fall netting and certain areas will be fixed with rock anchors.
The seafront road will continue to remain open during the contract.