Today, we started the more difficult sewage pipeline, the one that is
running across our driveway. It was tight to get the mini-digger in pass the
garden shed, the air “earth tube” chamber module, the flower bed.
We started by scraping the road surface off (recycled tarmac chippings)
along the line required, and then dug down 1200mm (4 feet) for the required
depth for the pipe to run along, downhill towards the sewage processing
unit.
We had a slight problem as the trench walls started collapsing. The sandy
soil was too loose and didn’t stay up so we actually ended up having our
mini-digger stranded at one end of the trench and when we tried to turn it
to drive it out, it also moved the OSB sheet that was trying to provide some
extra support and one of the tracks slipped slightly into the trench. We
rescued the poor mini-digger by placing 2 by 6 inch timber planks across the
trench and using the bucket arm to pressed down on solid ground to tilt the
digger back up again and slide the timbers planks under the track. Then, we
managed to drive it off and away from the “danger zone” – phew!
Digger-nearly-falling-into-Trench-1
Digger-nearly-falling-into-Trench-2
We will have to finish off the trench by hand, the old fashioned way of
digging! Oh well!!
The current three quarter done trench is now covered with three OSB boards,
with another 2 on top plus a third layer on top of that too. this is to
allow us to get our car out! Fortunately, the car went over the “bridge”
quite happily – thank goodness!!
Driveway-Trench-covered-up
Driveway-Trench