Mark Penn has been back to the breach site this morning.

The site compound has had more portacabins added.

Sections of roadway are laid off to one side and this is where the piling looks like it is off loaded from lorries when it arrives at site. I wonder if these fields have already been planted, we will see through the coming weeks.

At the canal end of the road way the piling waits to be picked up. The gravel ramp into the canal will be how they are moved onto the pontoon, you can see track marks. To the right of the digger/grabber you can see the start of some piling that has been driven into a mound of clay by the bank.

You can see here on the left of the photo where pegs mark out an area around where gravel has been added down a hole. The water level could be a little bit higher than in the last photos, but then the water will be cloudier making it harder to see the bags of aggregate near the tarpaulin.

On the off side numerous lengths of pipe work are being carried along the towpath. Once the cofferdams are in place water will be piped around the breach site to help maintain the level of the canal, helping those boats moored at Rawcliffe, and to feed the needs for water at Goole Docks. At the moment it looks like four pumps will be used for this job. I wonder whether they will need to pump the water out from the breach site? Or will it just empty itself into the drainage channel below?

On the opposite bank to where the gravel ramp is you can now see a mound of clay, this is where the digger was in a previous post. The dam at this end of the site will stretch between the two mounds of clay.

Looking the other way the pontoon is mid channel, working it’s way across the canal.

The surface of the pontoon has had roadway sections added for the grabber/digger/pile driver (?) to ride on. The two large pipes have been lowered into holes in the pontoon to hold it steady whilst work is carried out.

A small tug sits at the end of the pontoon, ready to move it into a new position or to return to the gravel ramp for more piling sections. One section of piling has been laid from the pontoon to the towpath. Is this being used as a walkway, to keep the piling straight or both?

I wonder how long it has taken them to get this far across the cut? A day or four?

On the off side bank you can see two more mounds of clay in the water. The piling appears to be heading to the nearest one. The pipes for the pumps continue out of view.

Thank you again Mark for the brilliant photos and letting me share them. It’s great being able to see work as it happens.