To Donald Linn (Senior Geologist, Glasgow City Council and project manager for the Strathbungo Mine Consolidation Works),
just letting you know that I am very concerned and disappointed by the poor quality of the work being done so far to repair the back lanes. So far in Queen Square, Forkers have merely taken up a section down one side (about 1m width of the lane width) where the worst of the holes were and relaid those stones. The level of the relaid stones is much lower than the rest of the lane and therefore although this has repaired the holes, it has done nothing to resolve the level differences and camber in the lane which will not resolve the recurring problems of silt/mud and water collecting in these lower areas which caused the break up of the lane in the first place. With a bit of forethought here it would have been simple to use a little more sand and hardcore to being the level up to the rest of the lane. By making the lane more level (like the bottom half of Queen Square lane is) it would make it more usable for pedestrians. Furthermore, the lane is now half a foot lower than our cobbled parking space leaving a large step down which when we try to park our car will cause our cobbles to destabilise and break off. I spoke to the site foreman and his words were ‘we are doing the minimum to the lanes’ and ‘if you want we will put some hardcore down to bring the level up to your garden’.
This really is not what we expected and is not any significant improvement upon on what existed before. It certainly does not look like value for the Council’s £200k! It is particularly disappointing given all the effort the Strathbungo Society, Community Council and Councillors, etc put into seeking a positive outcome from the mine consolidation situation.
Very disappointed.
I too am concerned about the lane works. The spacing between the setts seems much larger than it shold be and I wondered whether it was a way of Forkers saving money by not having to buy new stones. A case of lifting a re-setting with larger spacings to cover a larger area. Is it not possible they are more likely to move in future?
I share these concerns. I don’t see how the new cobbles will last when some are already unsteady – and they are spaced further apart than before. There are already puddles which has removed some of the sand filling.
I was up at 10.30pm last night repairing work that Forkers had done earlier in the day – badly! To me the key issue is that the spacing of the setts is far too wide (and half of the setts that came up were then transported off site!): the job looked like “currants in a bun”. According to the site foreman, Willie Rennie, the man to call with issues is Donald Linn (DRS, City Council). Willie said Forkers will be off the site by next Friday, that they’re working with a pot of money and that the (generally) good test site was too labour-intensive to replicate, hence the the guys have been instructed to set the setts apart! Not a great outcome, when a bit more thought and pride in the job would have made a massive difference.
The council has a very large store of random shape cobbles (apparently kept near the Transport Museum) so there should be no problem about a lack of materials. Chap called Donald from the council informed me of this ages ago.
I also believe they are not spending £200k but more like £90k – info from Brian Parr.
The work so far is not impressive with very loose mortar/sand/grit around the cobbles.
It’s not just not a great outcome, it’s not what the community was consulted on or asked for. I for one am very frustrated that the time and effort the Society put in on campaigning, consulting, arranging a trial pit, pushing for detailed quotes etc seems to have been in vain.
Having read the above comments and witnessed for myself the ongoing works, I must admit to feeling slightly cheated! My understanding, perhaps naively, was that we would end up with completely relaid lanes. Having taken a saunter down the lanes and seeing very small patches of widely spaced cobbles (which I assumed were merely test areas), I am stunned that this is all that we are to expect! If I had known this would be the final result, I would have gone with the option of tarmacing over the whole lot!