La Coupee gets emergency repairs following rockfall
A metre of concrete has been installed under La Coupee walkway, with a specialist successfully completing emergency repairs before the arrival of Storm Eowyn.
However, the latest collapse of the narrow walkway came as no surprise to Policy & Finance chairman John Guille, who warned there would be more in the future.
Teams from Geomarine have worked late into the night to support the vital link connecting Sark with Little Sark.
Last Monday’s rockfall and partial wall collapse came just four weeks before routine work was due to take place.
A drone survey carried out by Geomarine in November identified the need for maintenance and it was booked in for 10 February – but the rock slid before the engineers could return.
Three Geomarine engineers from Guernsey and two from Jersey have worked as late as until 1am to complete the five-day project in just two days, ahead of forecasted storms this weekend.
Right underneath the walkway, about a metre of concrete has been added, as shotcrete, applied by spraying.
The engineers said that the rock which remained next to the slip was still surprisingly solid.
‘We came to Sark and applied spray concrete to the slipped area and then anchored that into the cliff face with steel rod-like anchors,’ said graduate civil engineer Jon White.
‘We’ve been working very long hours. We had intended to come the whole week but had to change our programme slightly due to the rough weather approaching.
‘There’s further inspection work to do, and we’ll hopefully be able to do that in the near future. It will just require ongoing monitoring and maintenance, but at the moment it’s perfectly fine to be used.’
The engineers spent yesterday clearing the vegetation to assess what they could of the cliff face.
Mr Guille downplayed the incident, which saw weight limits placed on the causeway, which affected the dozen people living on Little Sark.
‘Getting cut off is really exaggerating it,’ he said.
‘The road was not impassable. What we were trying to do was err on the side of caution and not contribute any more damage when the work was about to be done.
‘The road was still open to emergency vehicles, and if there had been a major problem with someone’s heating or plumbing then it could have been fixed. People live there and businesses are there, that doesn’t just stop.’
He said the isthmus had been eroding for thousands of years. Sark just needed to manage it.
‘Rock falls all the time. It falls in Guernsey too. The main thing is monitoring it.’
