Bickleigh Vale Roadside Vegetation

1-in-50 Year Rainfall Event damage

29/12/2016

Late in the afternoon, the rain began in what turned out to be a major event. Melbourne Water later confirmed that it was a greater than a 1 in 50 year rainfall intensity event in the Mooroolbark area.

Bickleigh Vale Road and Edna Walling Lane held up pretty well on the whole although a number of driveways didn't do quite so well with their gravel topping now filling up the Bickleigh Vale Road gutters!

At the problematic eastern end turning circle area of Bickleigh Vale Rd, during the storm, the creek broke its bank in a number of places and flowed across the road. This caused significant erosion of the edge of the road outside Wimborne’s garage and Windsong's bridge.

Not unexpectedly, we also lost a fair amount of mulch from the other side of the road so now the cardboard we laid under it some months ago as a weed mat is now exposed.

click to enlarge

The Shire advised that, as such, they have had over 550 requests for repairs to damage caused by the storm and will get to them - inclusing Bickleigh Vale all as soon as they can with their first priority being houses directly impacted by water.

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December topping and grading

2/12/2016

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Following previous discussions with the Shire after the last road maintenance work and our agreed plan for this time, more extensive work was carried out this time.

Ian Pearson from the Shire, their Contractor and his operator had all been out to site to discuss the work to be done prior to commencement of the work. The plan was to put the remaining Lilydale toppings in the turn area at the end of Bickleigh Vale Road, put some of the new Coldstream toppings product in Edna Walling Lane and leave some for us to fill potholes.
Because they were going to apply dust suppressant to Bickleigh Vale Rd (an annual event), the Contractor didn't want to put too much of the new rock on Bickleigh Vale this time in case it affects the dust suppressant.

Outcome:

The contractor advised us that, all the topping used this time was Lilydale Toppings and it is now fully depleted
There was not enough to build up the turning circle sufficiently to create a profile with a gutter on the south-eastern side of the turning circle outside Littlewood but the depth of material on the turning circle is certainly an improvement
The contactor left us a metre of topping for later pot-hole filling as requested but, since there was not enough material at the part of the turning circle by the entrance to Windsong we spread the excess topping there and will wait until next time to have our ‘pot-hole top-up pile.’

Edna Walling Lane

Bickleigh Vale Rd / Edna Walling Ln

(click to enlarge)

Bickleigh Vale Rd turning circle

Ian Pearson has advised he'll meet the contractor again on site just before the next maintenance run to ensure the new Coldstream toppings are built up sufficiently in the turning circle to allow the profiling of a gutter on both sides as originally planned.

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