Ludwell valley culvert, Exeter, 02/07/2009

[stanmorrison]

A short (500m or so) concrete culvert that carries a brook beneath roads and houses in Exeter. I do apologise for my photographs being turds of the unpolishable variety, but I've yet to venture much further than the point-and-shoot world of photon00bishness. Not too hot on features, but it's a great place to start out with draining as it is easy to access, has fresh air and clean water.

Anyway, on with the report:

The infall.


Looking downstream from near the infall. The vertical steel tubes do not reach the roof and are too thin to be supports. I wonder what they are for...


A short sidepipe leads to a small CSO chamber.


Loads of drain spiders as always...


A drain slug. The water from this pipe started to flow as I took this shot. I thought "Crap it's raining! GET OUT." Luckily it was a false alarm and I returned later that day after checking the local forecast.


The tunnel splits into two parallel rectangular concrete passages about two thirds of the way down.


A relatively large sidepipe joins at the split point, though grip gloves and a skateboard are in order to navigate this one without crawling. Daylight is visible from the two small openings above the pipe.


Further down another sidepipe leads to (guessing by the smell) another CSO. You can just about see the pipe split into two smaller ones in this shot.


The two rectangular tunnels are connected by these openings at regular intervals.


Many small sidepipes join the culvert toward the downstream end.


The end is nigh!


Cobwebs and mineral straws. I'm guessing the minerals are leaching from the concrete as there's barely half a foot of soil above it.


The height of the tunnels is reduced a short distance from the outfall and I had to stoop a little here.


View from the outfall:


The outfall.


Looking back upstream from a bridge a short distance down from the outfall.


Looking downstream from the same position. Climb the wall to get out.


Finally, further upstream on the same brook is a much older brick culvert that carries the brook beneath a small railway station and beyond. It is shorter than the downstream culvert, but I'll save this for another day.

[BB]

Nice to see whats under our feet

[Sandman]

Blinkin flip

Used to play down there when I was bunking off school

That little CSO was dubbed "Freddy's room" by us for some reason I forget now

Ahh a trip down memory lane... or culvert

(now go up the top of the GLC and trace the panny back up under polsoe bridge station

here's a hint

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=50.73...20&r=0&src=msl
)

[BA]

Yeah its about the urbex not the pics. It looks very wet down there

[boxfrenzy]

That looks very good indeed. Nicely written and good shots too

[stanmorrison]

Blinkin flip

Used to play down there when I was bunking off school

That little CSO was dubbed "Freddy's room" by us for some reason I forget now

Ahh a trip down memory lane... or culvert

(now go up the top of the GLC and trace the panny back up under polsoe bridge station

Heh, bunking off to do UE - hand in a load of urbex pics for your geography project I used to go and hide in the derelict buildings around the Marsh Barton estate when I did that.

Well, I've seen where the brick tunnel leads to - the field behind St Katherines Road, and there's another even further upstream in Mincinglake Valley Park - the upper part of the valley was a landfill site up till the 70's and the brook is culverted beneath the rubbish. I've only seen the infall to this one and it looks rather small in comparison. Beyond there you're into the hills where the springs the brook rises from are - so I guess that's more rural exploration than urban

I'll get back sometime to do the large sidepipe and the upstream culverts (and the Cricklepit leat culverts), though it's likely to be a while before I can...

[KingElvis]

Nice work mate and a cracking first report. I like lots.

[superkev]

nice work!
looking forward to your further investigation reports!!!

[stanmorrison]

Update - Had a peek at the upstream tunnel today, need to get back to get better pictures and see the infall. Anyhow, the first section carries the brook beneath Polsloe Road Station and appears to have been built at the same time as the railway (Exmouth line). After this comes modern concrete box-section then what appears to be a lost stone/brick arch bridge which I assume carries Polsloe Road. After this a sloping floor reduces the standing-height tunnel to a five foot RCP which continues beneath the houses along Beacon Lane. There should be at least one older brick section beneath another railway that crosses the brook just after the infall.

The lost bridge and slope - the RCP is just visible here. Part of the floor has been washed out and the sound of the water cascading over it tells you a thing or two about tunnel acoustics - sounded like a waterfall!


Looking back from the same position, the concrete section begins.


The concrete section turns a corner before joining to the brick tunnel. Daylight from the outfall can be seen here:


The original section:


View from the outfall, complete with obligatory shopping trolley The water beyond the concrete ledge is knee-deep and loaded with tripalicious debris.


Ooh-er! This wasn't here the last time I visited! Lucky nobody was under it when it fell...


Overall an interesting revisit, but still needs one last trip to complete the explore to the infall. This tunnel was a tad more whiffy than the downstream section but this was largely due to CSO spew from recent rainfall. Oxygen levels remained at 20.9% throughout.

[boxfrenzy]

Good stuff mate, and thanks for including this on a previous report too