Eldon Hole - East / West ground anchors
- Thread starter Pete K
- Start date
Sorry I can't be there Pete & whoever. I can short route the mixing method though. put ballast and cement in a flexi tub and pour it to another three passes will dry mix the concrete, and cut out spot board ans shovelling. a spade and pretty-much stirring action with small amount in tub ,adding watter and more dry mix till batch mixed. 
trust me it works a treat , reply on trying method.
Ric' ( owd git.)
trust me it works a treat , reply on trying method.Ric' ( owd git.)
Pete K
Well-known member
Had a bit of mixed day but some good progress made up at Eldon Hole.
DON'T USE THE EAST OR WEST GROUND ANCHORS UNTIL NOTIFIED
Issue 1 - ate too much breakfast at the Yondermans.
Issue 2 - too wet to get the Landrover up to the hole so tools, 12 bags of postcrete, 2 water tubs and 4 steel bollards had to be carried up by hand.
Issue 3 - whoever built the original bollards had never intended for them to be removed, ever!
The West Route
The lower original bollard was left alone for now as we thought that it was not in the best place anyway. This will get cut out soon. A new bollard was installed in a deep hole nearer to the upper bollard. This will need a few days for the concrete to set so don't go hanging off it yet.
The original upper bollard is secured into a deep concrete plug. We dug around this and poured more mix in to increase the size of the slab by about a third. The original bollard is going to be cut off and a stainless eye bolt of some description will be resin fixed into the concrete slab.
The East Route
Both concrete blocks with the original bollards in were massive. We dug down, checked the depth and then packed them out with more stone and postmix. One of the bollards snapped off with just hand power, the other needs cutting off. Once these are out of the way these 2 slabs will also get stainless resin anchors.
Don't use any of the remaining bollards as they are all going to be cut off, maybe tomorrow.
I need to source some large stainless eye bolts, the longer the better, and resin them in with the same stuff used for P bolts.
Sorry the job is not done yet but we'd be up there all week trying to remove the old anchors and them still need to carry another 2 dozen bags of post mix up. Sadly, we did have to carry the other 3 new bollards all the way back to the car park - Any suggestions for a new home for them? I think one may end up at JH as a back up anchor.
Can I thank Steve Rudge, Roy Rogers, Jon Daniels, Tom Bradshawe, Beth Knight, Adam Geens and Kev West for a sterling effort today.
I'll keep people updated as we continue but assume the East and West routes will be out of action until at least the weekend beginning the 13th Feb.
DON'T USE THE EAST OR WEST GROUND ANCHORS UNTIL NOTIFIED
Issue 1 - ate too much breakfast at the Yondermans.
Issue 2 - too wet to get the Landrover up to the hole so tools, 12 bags of postcrete, 2 water tubs and 4 steel bollards had to be carried up by hand.
Issue 3 - whoever built the original bollards had never intended for them to be removed, ever!
The West Route
The lower original bollard was left alone for now as we thought that it was not in the best place anyway. This will get cut out soon. A new bollard was installed in a deep hole nearer to the upper bollard. This will need a few days for the concrete to set so don't go hanging off it yet.
The original upper bollard is secured into a deep concrete plug. We dug around this and poured more mix in to increase the size of the slab by about a third. The original bollard is going to be cut off and a stainless eye bolt of some description will be resin fixed into the concrete slab.
The East Route
Both concrete blocks with the original bollards in were massive. We dug down, checked the depth and then packed them out with more stone and postmix. One of the bollards snapped off with just hand power, the other needs cutting off. Once these are out of the way these 2 slabs will also get stainless resin anchors.
Don't use any of the remaining bollards as they are all going to be cut off, maybe tomorrow.
I need to source some large stainless eye bolts, the longer the better, and resin them in with the same stuff used for P bolts.
Sorry the job is not done yet but we'd be up there all week trying to remove the old anchors and them still need to carry another 2 dozen bags of post mix up. Sadly, we did have to carry the other 3 new bollards all the way back to the car park - Any suggestions for a new home for them? I think one may end up at JH as a back up anchor.
Can I thank Steve Rudge, Roy Rogers, Jon Daniels, Tom Bradshawe, Beth Knight, Adam Geens and Kev West for a sterling effort today.
I'll keep people updated as we continue but assume the East and West routes will be out of action until at least the weekend beginning the 13th Feb.
Pete K
Well-known member
Some pictures on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/peakinstruction/albums/72157663723990710
I'll keep adding more as we progress.
I'll keep adding more as we progress.
nickwilliams
Well-known member
Pete, if you want to get the old bollards out then I have a hydraulic jack hammer which operates off the PTO on my LandRover which will break up the concrete.
Failing that, if you want to just chop them off, I have a Stihl saw you can borrow.
Failing that, if you want to just chop them off, I have a Stihl saw you can borrow.
Pete K
Well-known member
Cheers Nick. We won't want to damage the slabs really, they are very big and solid so I plan to glue some 150mm stainless anchors in them next week.
One of the bollards snapped off with one of our guys just leaning on it today so I think my grinder should be able to take out the rest if I just cut the steel and hit them to crack the concrete fill. If we get stuck I'll give you a call for a bigger cutter.
One of the bollards snapped off with one of our guys just leaning on it today so I think my grinder should be able to take out the rest if I just cut the steel and hit them to crack the concrete fill. If we get stuck I'll give you a call for a bigger cutter.
Pete K
Well-known member
An update on the progress of this project:
All of the old dangerous bollards on the East and West route have now been removed and await collection.
There is a single new bollard in the West route at the moment. The East side has no ground anchors at all at this time. The installation of other bollards will be organised as soon as possible but for now the East route will not be possible and cavers will need to make their own choices regarding the single bollard on the West.
DCA will need some volunteers to help with digging holes and installing the remaining 3 new bollards when the ground has dried enough for 4x4 access again. The existing concrete plugs would not be conducive to safe resin anchors as was originally hoped. We will try to get this done as soon as possible but for now we are sorry for any inconvenience but the original ground anchors had to go on safety grounds.
Pete Knight
DCA Projects
All of the old dangerous bollards on the East and West route have now been removed and await collection.
There is a single new bollard in the West route at the moment. The East side has no ground anchors at all at this time. The installation of other bollards will be organised as soon as possible but for now the East route will not be possible and cavers will need to make their own choices regarding the single bollard on the West.
DCA will need some volunteers to help with digging holes and installing the remaining 3 new bollards when the ground has dried enough for 4x4 access again. The existing concrete plugs would not be conducive to safe resin anchors as was originally hoped. We will try to get this done as soon as possible but for now we are sorry for any inconvenience but the original ground anchors had to go on safety grounds.
Pete Knight
DCA Projects
pwhole
Well-known member
It makes large trips possible too, as with multiple routes rigged (I did it with three once), there's loads of room for everyone, and it's nice to be able to travel alongside others for a change (in daylight) and have a chat - with so many routes and rebelays you can take it steadier but still get everyone out relatively quickly. And you can do a different route on the way up, so great variety for one day's SRT, especially if you throw in the indoor pitches as well. Needs a lot of rope though!
