Water drainage work completed at Castle Emplacement

A 25-metre section of the castle walkway has been reconstructed after the drainage problems caused significant deterioration.

The walkway has reopened to pedestrians and rowing boats have been returned to the area.

The reconstruction works were completed within the project budget of £400,000.

‘The surface water drainage system was of insufficient capacity for its catchment areas,’ said Guernsey Ports project manager Joe Armstrong.

‘By increasing the number of gullies from one to five, in addition to increasing the diameter of pipework, the capacity of the surface water drainage system has been increased by over 200% with a new, larger diameter pipe installed through the seawall.’

Storm Ciaran late last year and prolonged wet weather provided early tests of the new drainage and the system has performed well to drain rainfall and wave overtopping.

‘In the past, this would have ponded at the base of the wall and that may well have contributed to the wall’s deteriorating condition,’ said Mr Armstong.

‘This is a more suitable foundation to what was there before.

‘Previously it comprised fill material from the land reclamation project to construct the Castle Emplacement in the mid-19th century.’

The retaining wall was reconstructed on top of a reinforced concrete ground beam, which sits on piles driven into bedrock.

As part of the excavation works, sections of railway track and wrought iron were discovered, which appeared to have been buried as part of backfilling behind and under the masonry wall.

Also among the backfill were remnants of the timber posts which would have formed part of the timber gantry crane used to construct the Castle Emplacement seawall in the mid-19th century.