Down South

The latest Precision Point Surveys carnival headed south.

Ahead of the team were eleven reaches waiting to be surveyed, comprising of 170 cross sections across various terrain.

With the summer sun showing its face for a final time in 2023 the factor 50 was slapped on and away we went.

One reach required a check survey for the Environment Agency with the other ten reaches needing fresh data to inform brand new flood models.

The various reaches flowed through fishing lakes, sailing clubs, swamps that hadn’t been touched by man for years – lucky us!

Like all jobs, we were indebted to local assistance in allowing us access to certain areas and the occasional cups of tea and biscuits were a welcome distraction from walking through bushes too!

Working near a tidal estuary meant scheduling our work around the tide times was key to a seamless project. Our teams organised their site programme to carry out survey of tidal sections at low tide.

Whilst the warm weather was lovely, working in the summer does pose a different issue and that is the growth of the dreaded vegetation. Certain areas were on the cusp of being inaccessible which meant slower progress at particular sections. However, perseverance is key and we reached section 170 with smiles still on our faces.

Almost three weeks of blood (one of us chopped a finger instead of chopping a pepper when cooking one evening), sweat (it really was warm), but thankfully no tears later and another job was successfully ticked off by our team.