al
Member
Sorry to hear this. Keeping the dams operational was always seen as important because the route through from Leviathan to Stemple Highway is a single-point of failure. The original introduction of the pipework (and subsequently R2D2, when the Boulder Piles started moving) was to keep the route open, and the dam clearing work didn't really take that long and was, in many ways, enjoyable. But, if you say that R2D2 is no longer taking water, then it sounds like there's a problem with the main dam, which really is an issue and definitely needs sorting if the route through from Titan is to be maintained - far more critical than the CAW duck.I went through less than a year ago, and it definitely wasn't sumped then, so I suspect this is mostly due to a lot of water (it's been a very wet few months) taking fines into the passage and blocking the small amount of drainage that is still there. As R2D2 isn't really working any more due to the Tea Rooms dam being blocked, everything is going into the FSE connection rather than Speedwell.
This situation is mostly down to the lack of a proper maintenance crew willing and able to work on stuff like this - the above two posters are exempt from any further work due to the amount of work they've already done - and retirees shouldn't really need to be asked, what with all these 'young cavers' about. Let's not forget that most of this drainage system was also installed by students, but something has clearly gone awry since then.