The DCDR has welcomed the common sense approach now being taken by Northern Ireland Water over the new storm pumping main pipe through our grounds. Rather than the original plan, as reported in the local press, of going through the middle of the station yard underneath the new archway, and requiring the lifting of all five lines at the widest part of our yard - as well as potentially prohibiting future visitor facility enhancement projects such as a widened platform, etc. - the pipeline route now goes along the outside perimeter fence between us and the ASDA complex, and crosses the railway under an existing accommodation crossing. This week work began on its installation, which will be completed in time for our next running day on the 26th May. However in a very interesting development, due to the depth the pipe is being laid, the contractors have come across the original brushwood foundations of the railway embankment! When the railway was being constructed across the Downpatrick Marshes in the mid-1850s, the embankment was essentially floated across the marshes on bundles of brushwood, supplied from the nearby Holymount Forest. Amazing to think that Victorian-era wood is still doing the job it was designed to do 150 years on!
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 20:01:48 +0000
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