Our Projects - Treath & Helford

Serious flood damage in 2010 had gulleyed out the section of path between Helford and Treath. This had caused the path to become quite treacherous in places. It was noted that water had entered the woodland off the road above and the drains here had not been able to cope with the volume of water. This project allowed the water to flow properly off the road and into a trench through the woodland to a small stream which flows into the Helford River. The contractors put in a barrier where water had overtopped the trench to stop the overflow of water in the future. Once installed, they put in further grips within the woodland at places it looked likely that water may overtop in the future. They cleared out the drain which then took the water under the path. Once this work was complete, the contractors put in large stone, over topped to create a pleasant walkable surface which infilled the gulleying. This has improved walkers experience on this path. In order to improve the path further, any low hanging vegetation and branches which were growing in from the side were cleared. Unfortunately, the day that the work started coincided with a period of very wet weather which meant that the work had to be delayed while water levels subsided. The weekend before the contractors stated, Cornwall suffered major floods and deeper gulleying occurred. This meant that there was an increase in work and materials needed. Once the additional works had been agreed, the contractors were able to get in to do the drainage off the road, they changed from the original planned sleepers to large granites to stop the flow of water, these were soon put to the test and turns out, the larger granites were needed. Once they were able to get the water flowing properly, they were able to start on the main surfacing works. Again, heavy rainfall over the Christmas period as they laid the stone meant that works again had to be halted as the ground was then too wet to be compacted. Works were finally completed in February 2013.