John Money reported today (Sunday 21st February 2010) that the South Gare access road is 'still closed'. Does anyone know what is going on? This is presumably a side effect of the Steel Works closure (called a moth balling). Perhaps Martyn Sidwell knows? I feared that the closure might have unexpected consequences for bird watching at South Gare.
When we tried to drive along to take photographs of blast furnace's last evening on Friday we were told by the security man that it would be a 48 hour closure for health and safety reasons, in case of sudden gas release while furnace was being tapped off and shut down.
You can still walk across the golf course on the public right of way and then along the dunes or beach towards South Gare, as we did.
Dave,
As you know I don't have anything to do with TCP or it's blast furnace (fortunately!).
My understanding is that when the blast furnace is being commissioned it has to be tapped from the base rather than from the sides in order to remove all the liquid iron. This is known as tapping the salamander. There is a potential for a gas release to occur during this process. This gas is very dangerous, so the road was closed for H & S reasons. This should all be complete by now, although work to "mothball" the furnace will continue for some time yet. I'd expect the road to re-open very soon. If the road doesn't I'll try to find out whats happenning.
Cheers
Martyn
Thanks, Martyn. Pleased to hear you are not one of the 1600 (I didn't actually know which part of Corus you worked for). Re walking out there through the dunes, as most people seawatch from the car this would be quite a problem. Best wishes, Dave
Access at South Gare back to normal today (Tuesday 23rd February). Dave
There is a Corus Private Road, Authorized Vehicles Only sign, closely followed by a sign with Court Action May Be Taken Against Trespassers. Anyone know the status of this road?
Hi,
I assume you mean the South Gare road. This is a private road but they do not mind anyone going down there. To keep its private status they shut it one day per year.
Thanks. They've got a funny way of showing their approval! I'll ignore the signs next time . . . . .