What went wrong on the A421? |
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- Опубликовано: 9 окт 2024
- We take a look ands speculate on what could have gone wrong on the A421 in Bedfordshire.
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I think what happens is that the water is pumped into that balancing pond. It then overflows into the brook and travels to the lake by gravity. There is an outflow from the pond towards the brook and the culvert.
Looking at some of the news articles, it looks as if the drainage from the pond, and the culvert under the A421, may have become silted up. The local resident said the balancing pond overflowed and flooded into the nearby animal centre and they had previously complained that the balancing pond was failing to drain.
Thus the water could not go anywhere and started to flood the village. In addition, it probably flowed back over onto the A421 by the pond and then down the road and back into the dip, thus the pumps were simply recirculating the water, instead of getting rid of it.
Due to the amount of rain it is also possible the brook was overwhelmed and just could not cope.
It looks as if the balancing pond needs digging out and making bigger, and the drainage from that pond maintained more thoroughly.
its a number of issues yes and if it is the pond that the water is pumped to then it needs to be looked at and maintained much better.
Makes sense. When they had the big pumps they were discharging into a balancing pond further along the road, suggesting there was a problem with the nearest one.
Also, I think you can see 4 blue pumps underneath the grille in the pumping station at 9:50. So there was redundancy there.
Absolute chaos, yet again! The old A421 is now fully backed up all the way down prob to huge roundabout at Kempston since opening the new A421 slip roads. I live opposite the MM village hall and that brook fully flooded Bedford Road and Snagge Court the first Sunday night (2.5 weeks ago). The smallholding on Lower Shelton Road was totally flooded many feet deep, along with houses in that area too, a huge rescue operation by local villagers via many FB appeals was carried out in order to save the poor livestock. Apparently, info from owners of the smallholding, underground pipeline in the vicinity was never repaired since flooding back in Jan/Feb this year. The traffic and constant sirens throughout MM has been a total headache. That pumping station is obviously not fit for purpose OR, hasn't been properly maintained.
I could see that this morning when I filmed this that it was going to back right up. They should have kept the old and new 421 traffic separate for now. Waiting to get on the roundabout is the problem.
Another fabulous video. It seems fairly obvious to me that if the traffic planners felt it was the time to divert traffic off the A421 at MM those problems would occur at that roundabout as your observations clearly indicate. They could do with employing you and your drone for some advice for allowing better movement of traffic. Once again, well done.
Thank you
An excellent summary, thank you. Your suggestion as to what happened is very plausible, I doubt "official" inquiries will ever tell the full story, they never do. Often press statements and the like are complete bollocks, as most of us understand these days, it's a massive industry with all the hangers on in the legal, media relations, press office and senior management types employed to be economical with the actuality.
Press release 😂😂😂 Years ago i remember a press release about a pumping station ( one pump had been accidentally turned off ) in fact a painting contractor had turned the bloody lot off so they could here there radio then gone home it was a sewage pumping station i leave the rest to your imagination
🤢🤢🤢
@martinmumper3355 Ive worked on plenty of sites before, this is shocking but not surprising.
Great coverage thanks!
Hey, thanks for doing these videos, they have been immensely helpful for those of us who live in the area and had to try and drive around these parts. Also very interesting for me as I have recently been working on the design of a control system that monitors for flooding and reports and controls the pumping equipment, not on this scale (more like basements etc.) but interesting just the same.
Glad you like them!
Thanks for the updates, been very useful working in the area
Great update. Keep up the good work fella.
This year's best stumbled upon! Looking fwd to yr content 👌
Welcome aboard!
Big mistake removing those cones. Originally I thought that was a very clever piece of traffic management. Now they've gone, it's chaos and will only get worse during the peak times!
Yep, total chaos. Not a genius move by highways. By all means they could be open during the day but need to be closed at peak times.
@@ProjectUniversalUK Totally agree. I forgot to say thank you. Being kept informed is so useful, partly because my wife works in MK, travelling to and from Wootton, but also this affects all the local traffic.
I know some people have posted snide comments, but, to be honest, F'em. I think you do/have done, a brilliant job and am very appreciative. 👍
I wouldn't be surprised if they felt pressured into removing them for safety reasons. Some naughty drivers may have been bypassing them on the wrong side of the road.
They may have one lane closed on the pump side but to allow even one lane open under the bridge would alleviate a lot of those traffic jams on thd old A421.
They need to load kit on one side and move tankers on the other.
My Guess is those pumps are under the covers where the traffic cones are sitting, the blue items, looks like NRV’s (Non Return Valves) and the item after these are the gate valves. Good video, and really good footage. Thanks, i enjoyed your video. Cheese, Steve.
Thanks Steve.
I think there has to be an oil separator before the water gets into the lake, or any land come to it! Good to see it all getting sorted.
I think that is what the reeds are for, to contain the road crap.
😂 I’m loving the behaviour 😂 from a subscriber in Wootton
Welcome to the channel.
Thanks for the update. Been very helpful
No problem 👍
I appreciate the updates. Working nearby has been a nightmare. More info on your channel than from Highways. I suspect they moved the cones because of access into the services. The way it was, it was very difficult to get into and out of those services; there were very limited number of routes.
Personally, as well as findout out what melt decided to build the road and lack of drainage, I'd like to have some comments from the selfish people of MM who inisisted the 7.5t limit was put back while the A421 was totally closed. Given that the A6, A428 A422 and the A421 were all shut due to flooding at various times, that old road was the only way out except A1. The gridlock in the surrounding areas was never going to be good, but their NIMBY attitude exacerbated an already bad situation. Highways should have insisted that the old A421 down MM was left open to trucks. Signs up show that they didn't even want cars down there. Thoroughly selfish people. And I used to live next to a dual carriageway and a motorway so no need to try the "oh you don't know what it's like" cry. I do and there was no reason not to muck in given the chaos.
It certainly wasn't handled brilliantly
Well, it's a right mess at 5 pm on Weds. Traffic going East along the old 421 is trying to leave the old road at Marston and then join the new 421, but it can't because of the near constant Western flow along the new 421 slip roads. What was a smooth flow of East bound vehicles along the new 421 has ground to a halt because it cannot leave the slip road due to the traffic now leaving the old 421 and trying to get onto the East bound new 421.
Probably none of that makes any sense, but neither does the removal of the temporary road block near the service station.
All in all, chaos!
Nightmare! They should have kept the roadblock separating the old and new a421 so the traffic flowed.
@@ProjectUniversalUK Exactly. Such a simple piece of traffic management but one with a positive result totally disproportionate to such a small road closure!
Raise the road and fit a humpback bridge. Gravity rules!
I’m surprised that pump station isn’t at a higher level bit, silly to have it so low down
Indeed
If you put the pumps at a higher level then the road would have to flood more for the water to reach them
What went wrong was they put the road under the bridge, instead of putting it at bridge level with a roundabout, if they could find another one, with maybe lights controling the 'cross' traffic. Next time it rains , maybe they could use flood lights😊
I think the pumps are still there. Look at 9:51 of your video. Looking at the grills to the side of the hoist. Blue items (x4) visible!
Those are Non Return Valves, pumps will be under the metal covers, below the green beam. The beam carries a hoist to left/lower the pumps in and out of the pumpwell.
That farm next to the pond were complaining that they got flooded out due to the pond filling up
Yes I heard that.
Looking at this video and previous ones looks like 4 pumps there individual shut off valves are under the grill covered pit that join into a common rising main the pumps wiil be in the wet well directly under the gantry there is probably more damage in the control cabin then to the pumps they are submersible its comon practice to have the control cabin next to the pumps for ease of maintenance
But it would have made sense to put the switchgear above the highest possible flood level in that dip.
Until the next big rain storm and it all starts again 🫣
Great drone footage and commentary
I am a new subber and I have a DJI Mini 3. Can I ask how you are recording your voice whilst doing the drone footage? I have a micro camper and want to add footage and commentary to my vlogging. 😊
I use a DJI Mic but you could also just record onto your phone or something then sync the audio and video up in post production.
@ProjectUniversalUK thank you. This can go into the USB c host port on the controller
No, you record the audio on the mic as a seperate device, (mic has a built in memory) you then take your drone footage files and your mic file and drop them into your edidting program on a laptop/computer and sync the two files together.
the main carriageway has been resurfaced - you can see it's new with nice white lines, dont see why they would do the slipways.
Just the usual local authority corruption. Giving more money to contractors
I don't know why but they are doing the slips tonight
"Wataaa" 🤣
Are you getting credit for national highways using your footage 😂
No I'm not cheeky bstards
My boss saw it on youtube and sent us all an email thanking us for our hard work, so its being seen.... a cash bonus would have been nice lolol@ProjectUniversalUK