Dawlish sea wall collapse

Rich McLean · 4 Feb 2014

40 foot of Sea Wall washed away at Dawlish. Could be closed a bit longer than friday. Source BBC Radio Devon

RailUK Forums

Captain Chaos · 4 Feb 2014

Rich McLean said:
40 foot of Sea Wall washed away at Dawlish. Could be closed a bit longer than friday. Source BBC Radio Devon

30 feet of sea wall has gone and all ballast missing apparently. Could be more damage but current conditions have stopped further investigations. I can't see the line opening on Friday tbh.

Rich McLean · 4 Feb 2014

Dawlish Platform 1 just before total collapse
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Captain Chaos said:
30 feet of sea wall has gone and all ballast missing apparently. Could be more damage but current conditions have stopped further investigations. I can't see the line opening on Friday tbh.

Yes. I can see Network Rail and FGW listing it as Until further notice tomorrow

Lee Edworthy ‏@FgwLee 2m
Latest info is that at least 30ft of the sea wall at @FGW Dawlish has been washed away leaving track suspended in mid air.

From that I can very well see it updated as "Until Further Notice"

Goatboy · 4 Feb 2014

It's hard to even begin to imagine the sea wall at Dawlish collapsing. I've walked it many a time and it's a very substantial structure. Must have been very harsh conditions

Rich McLean · 4 Feb 2014

Goatboy said:
It's hard to even begin to imagine the sea wall at Dawlish collapsing. I've walked it many a time and it's a very substantial structure. Must have been very harsh conditions

I think it will take a month minimum in order to rebuild it, and it can only be done during calm weather

tsr · 4 Feb 2014

There has also been flooding affecting roads & houses in the Dawlish area, so I think it's safe to say that the sea is not stopping at the railway...

YorkshireBear · 4 Feb 2014

Rich McLean said:
I think it will take a month minimum in order to rebuild it, and it can only be done during calm weather

Yep, a month may be optimistic, although i think single line working will take nearly that long.

It could well be that full running could take a lot longer, although NR will be throwing money at it. I think this will be the kick the government need to properly fund feasibility studies into alternative routes.

Goatboy · 5 Feb 2014

YorkshireBear said:
I think this will be the kick the government need to properly fund feasibility studies into alternative routes.

This sort of issue is very rare, though.

YorkshireBear · 5 Feb 2014

Goatboy said:
This sort of issue is very rare, though.

I sense not for much longer.... Sea Walls do not come cheap!

fgwrich · 5 Feb 2014

tsr said:
There has also been flooding affecting roads & houses in the Dawlish area, so I think it's safe to say that the sea is not stopping at the railway...

Marine Parade Drive and most of the low lying parts of Dawlish have been evacuated as of tonight as the flooding continues.

Not sure where most of the damage to the sea wall is, as the stretch along Marine Parade has suffered badly with the ballast being eroded by the waves.

I'm now being told that a 60ft stretch has collapsed into the sea along Sea Lawn Road with the edge of the road going in - that's the stretch with the sea on one side, railway, road slightly higher above the line and houses to the right as you approach Dawlish from Exeter - hope the houses remain safe! It Dosent look like a good night for South Devon and Cornwall at all as the bank at Penzance is also suffering tonight - large amounts of debris were washed over onto the railway last night / yesterday morning.

tsr · 5 Feb 2014

70yds of the aforementioned sea wall are now reported to have collapsed (I hope that should read 70ft, but...!).

fgwrich · 5 Feb 2014

Looks like Marine Parade in Dawlish is now under about a 1ft of water! Residents of Sea Lawn Road are now being evacuated by the Emergency Services as we speak.

I too hope that's in ft tsr, but it wouldn't surprise me if it is. Either way it's sadly getting worse.

bnsf734 · 5 Feb 2014

Here is a photo of Dawlish Station taken by Alvin Knight this morning, from the Dawlish Eyes Facebook page.

and another one:

Furrball · 5 Feb 2014

Images from twitter (Not mine)

jopsuk · 5 Feb 2014

Aye. That's very serious damage to the wall (and the houses too)- and there's no way that can be sorted till the weather calms down. it will, for an hour or two on Thursday. Then the next storm arrives.

ushawk · 5 Feb 2014

The line via Dawlish probably won't reopen for months looking at the damage. Also depends on what units are stuck west of there too.

Going to be an incredibly long fix.

cambsy · 5 Feb 2014

Seen weather forecast and predicted this sort of weather for at least couple of weeks into February, as the jet stream is locked into blowing severe depression storms from Atlantic, i wouldn't be surprised if Network Rail don't bother spending millions repairing Dawlish sea wall railway line and station, if it just gets destroyed by next storm and storm after storm. Think could be mid February before we see the Dawlish line re opened.

Woody · 5 Feb 2014

Weather wise its not looking good for repairs at the moment either. Let me explain. The same cocktail of atmospheric phenomenon that has dominated weather patterns over the North Atlantic and therefore Britain this winter looks set to continue for the rest of this week and also for next week. The villain of the peace this winter has been what is known as the Northern hemisphere “Polar Vortex” which is a huge pool/pools of very cold air that develop seasonally each Autumn/winter in the Polar Troposphere/Stratosphere above the Arctic basin. This winter that “Polar Vortex” has been unusually cold (-90C at its core) and persistent and has sunk much further south than normal over Canada/North America where it has largely remained up till now. The result is that this unusually cold air (energy) over the USA/Canada has been constantly feeding into the much warmer North Atlantic ocean which then causes a large thermal gradient between the two contrasting air masses which in turn turbo charges and steers the Jet stream as its blasts its way across the Atlantic spawning the constant stream of low pressures that are giving Britain such a record breaking wet and windy winter.
Until that “Polar Vortex” weakens and dissipates as it will do eventually this spring or significantly moves its position in the mean time it will continue to “fuel” the upstream weather patterns effecting Britain.
At this moment in time the Jet Stream maintains a strong and relentless flow running East over the Atlantic on a collision course with France continuing to spawn large storm systems over and close to the UK so the weather outlook remains in a very unsettled state with further spells of rain and wind for all, especially over the next week.

YorkshireBear · 5 Feb 2014

If the weather calmed down right now i would expect the wall to be back up within a month. Looking at the weather i do fear it could be a long long time. Focus on getting Dawlish-Newton Abbot and Warren-Exeter open for local services. Express buses on A38 for others. Then tackle this monster. The ballast clearing in other parts can begin once the weather is calmer, whereas the wall will require it to be significantly calmer.

I imagine NR will take the storm time to fully mobilise staff, plant and materials ready for when they can get in, they are very good at emergency repairs when needed and i imagine the lack of access now due to storm may well give them time to create a very efficient method for re installation.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Woody said:
Weather wise its not looking good for repairs at the moment either. Let me explain. The same cocktail of atmospheric phenomenon that has dominated weather patterns over the North Atlantic and therefore Britain this winter looks set to continue for the rest of this week and also for next week. The villain of the peace this winter has been what is known as the Northern hemisphere Polar Vortex which is a huge pool/pools of very cold air that develop seasonally each Autumn/winter in the Polar Troposphere/Stratosphere above the Arctic basin. This winter that Polar Vortex has been unusually cold (-90C at its core) and persistent and has sunk much further south than normal over Canada/North America where it has largely remained up till now. The result is that this unusually cold air (energy) over the USA/Canada has been constantly feeding into the much warmer North Atlantic ocean which then causes a large thermal gradient between the two contrasting air masses which in turn turbo charges and steers the Jet stream as its blasts its way across the Atlantic spawning the constant stream of low pressures that are giving Britain such a record breaking wet and windy winter.
Until that Polar Vortex weakens and dissipates as it will do eventually this spring or significantly moves its position in the mean time it will continue to fuel the upstream weather patterns effecting Britain.
At this moment in time the Jet Stream maintains a strong and relentless flow running East over the Atlantic on a collision course with France continuing to spawn large storm systems over and close to the UK so the weather outlook remains in a very unsettled state with further spells of rain and wind for all, especially over the next week.

Thanks for that, very detailed explanation.

Chrisgr31 · 5 Feb 2014

The 2nd photo in the series from Dawlish seems to indicate that the sea wall has been breached and the track has been washed away from under the rails. However it also appears to have taken part of the road, and must be close to the houses. Presumably unless they can get a temporary fix to the sea wall before the next storm, or get masses of concrete into the hole in the road, then the next storm will come through the breach in the sea wall and erode more of the track, the road, and the houses?

Certainly wouldn't like a house there now!

DavidBrown · 5 Feb 2014

Looking at the pictures, it looks like the front porch of one of those houses has indeed collapsed. Very scary stuff.

Ian Miller · 5 Feb 2014

Not sure of the original source but a friend had these on facebook.

Goatboy · 5 Feb 2014

PhilipW said:
if not months

Crikey I do hope not, where did you hear that?!

Ian Miller · 5 Feb 2014

Goatboy said:
Crikey I do hope not, where did you hear that?!

The damage isn't over yet. With the wall breached there is the likely hood that more of the wall will be damaged and more track washed away.

If more goes there is also the chance of steep cliffs being eroded at the base, potentially for lands slips.

With the weather continuing like this no one can get in to make temporary repairs let alone start fixing it.

Johnuk123 · 5 Feb 2014

Looking at the damage I think 3 months would be a conservative estimate especially with record amounts of rain due in the next 2 weeks.

cambsy · 5 Feb 2014

BBC news saying could take 6 weeks to repair Dawlish line, looks really bad.

Watch BBC news to see track suspended by air near Dawlish station, and being attacked by waves. going to be very big and long job to repair.

Aictos · 5 Feb 2014

Network Rail confirmed last night that the weather was so bad, that when a train was being moved away from the site where it had hit a tree on the line, it was restricted to 10mph because the wipers despite being on fast mode couldn't clear the windscreen quick enough to deal with the heavy rainfall.

As to Dawlish, the seawall being breached last night swept away the track formation with the rails/sleepers suspended in mid air, I believe Network Rail confirmed a 50mph emergency speed restriction on ALL routes west of Exeter.

Johnuk123 · 5 Feb 2014

Being reported on Sky that the sea wall has been destroyed in 4 separate places near Dawlish and estimate of repair is 6 weeks upwards.

MidnightFlyer · 5 Feb 2014

A BBC journalist has just Tweeted saying that NR have told him Dawlish could be the 'biggest job they've ever faced'.

YorkshireBear · 5 Feb 2014

Johnuk123 said:
Being reported on Sky that the sea wall has been destroyed in 4 separate places near Dawlish and estimate of repair is 6 weeks upwards.

If we get another bad storm over next few days i will not at all be surprised to see that rise to 12.

Dawlish sea wall collapse

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