Weeks Six & Seven: Across the Common
Getting closer & moving the site office
The team reached the top of the fields at Perthigwynion, widened the road as far as Blaen Egel and have started making their way across the common. Here is the map showing how far they’ve reached.
and the view from the Baran Mountain opposite. Now you can see the track winding its way up to the top of the mountain.
Reaching the top of the fields and setting up the site office. The team reached the top of the fields at Perthigwynion where the existing road is. They moved the site office from the bellmouth up to the top here. Note the bowser supplied by Tony Gourlay (an Awel member) who runs Gourlay Bowsers, .
Widening the road between Perthigwynion & Blaen Egel The existing road has been widened to 4 metres to enable the delivery of the turbines.
Constructing the track across the common The track across the common will be c. 2 kms in total. The team have got about half way.
Here are the before and after shots at the start of the track with a few of our visitors:
They are slicing off and storing the turf to ensure that the track can be reinstated to 3 metres wide following the delivery of the turbines.
This is where they have reached so far – the ruined farm in the distance (Pen Waun Uchaf farm) is close to the location of Turbine 2.
Archaeology and Ecology Watching Briefs Hywel, our archaeologist from Archaelology Wales and Sian, our ecologist from Amber Environmental Consulting, have both been on site full time carrying out a watching brief on the work carried out. There are over 30 archaeological sites on the Gwrhyd, including bronze age burial cairns and medieval quarries. Hywel is checking that these are not being disturbed and that nothing further is being unearthed by the diggers. Further to Sian’s work earlier in the scheme, she is continuing to monitor for any possible damage to wildlife.
Lib Dems visit In the run up to the Assembly elections, we have invited all local political candidates to visit the site. Here’s a picture of Lib Dems William Powell and Rosie Raison who visited during the week. William is the Chair of the National Assembly Environment and Sustainability Committee. The following day they launched their Community Energy Strategy using Awel as an exemplar scheme.
Delivery Preparation Jamie, our Owner’s Engineer, met with local county councillors, Arwyn Woolcock, Linda Williams and Linet Purcell, to discuss the area consultation and information dissemination regarding the delivery of the turbines.
At the Bellmouth:
The bellmouth is being tarmacked now, and the site office moved up to Perthigwynion.
A few Awel Co-op members visited the site during the week:
many thanks for helping to publicise the share offer, best wishes, dan