UK-Cherub Forum

Off Topic => Not Boats => Topic started by: roland_trim on June 18, 2010, 12:38:38 PM

Title: Flooding Sidney - Rolvison's last ever project
Post by: roland_trim on June 18, 2010, 12:38:38 PM

That's it. I said if I ever did this project I'd never do a ball ever again. The kids who executed this were truely fantastic. Hayley and I are both knackered, but it really was a hoot.

I first drew the concept/design whilst a student in 1998, but it has taken 12 years to find a Ball Committee brave enough to do it. Although not an Arup project,  my wife and I have been “consultants” to the college throughout the planning and execution to ensure the Grade I listed building and extensive basements remained dry.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287372/Cambridge-students-create-200m-canal-punt-May-Ball.html


http://cambridgetab.co.uk/reviews/review-sidney-sussex-may-ball/


http://www.metro.co.uk/news/831563-cambridge-students-create-canal-to-float-to-may-ball


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Universities/May-ball-lake-causes-flood-fears.htm

Title: Re: Flooding Sidney - Rolvison's last ever project
Post by: phil_kirk on June 18, 2010, 01:22:50 PM

Brilliant!

They should have got a cannal boat on it as well with a working lock.  All though that raises a number of other hazards.

They must have been really good at joining the pond liners to make up the canal and avoiding leaks.

Title: Re: Flooding Sidney - Rolvison's last ever project
Post by: roland_trim on June 18, 2010, 01:52:36 PM

Gaffa tape, roll the cloth and then bitumen flashing tape over the fold. By the end they had three crack teams of seamers. There was suprisingly almost no leakage during the night, we had allowed for a fire hydrant to flow in all night but it was left off!

They used empty vodka bottles filled with boiling water to make the tape more pliable when it got cold (I used to put it in an oven, but forgot to tell them). With that quantity of seams I think the vodka was a mandatory accessory amyway....

Title: Re: Flooding Sidney - Rolvison's last ever project
Post by: simon_jones on June 18, 2010, 02:57:22 PM

Outstanding!!!! Bit of a shame EJ couldn't make a geust apperance ;D

Title: Re: Flooding Sidney - Rolvison's last ever project
Post by: Banshee Ambulance on June 18, 2010, 05:27:48 PM

This is the sort of mad project that makes me proud to be an engineer! (And I am a real engineer as of today, sorry I had to drop that one in!) Great project, love it!

Title: Re: Flooding Sidney - Rolvison's last ever project
Post by: Phil Alderson on June 18, 2010, 05:39:25 PM

Amazing is a word that is often overused, however I think that it is fully justified in this case. That is quite a project.