OK I know they are really underground stone quarries
This was in the Business section of today's Bristol Evening Post:
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£1 m deal to mend mines
A Bristol-based contractor has won a £1 m deal to carry out emergency
stabilisation works on mines more than 100 years old.
Almondsbury firm Hydrock Contracting has been commissioned by Bath and North
East Somerset Council to make safe abandoned mines in Combe Down, near Bath
The mines, dug out in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, stretch over
40 acres under a residential area.
And to make the mines safe, the company has to excavate stone and stabilise
dangerous spots with foam concrete.
But engineers, pictured right,will have to work.carefully because they are
home to a rare species of bat.
The mines are one of the top 20 hibernation sites in Northern Europe for the
Horseshoe bat and so engineers will have to tread carefully
The mines are so small that the engineers have also had to design and build
their own excavating machine.
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And on the right there is a picture of four smiling people with helmets and
fluorescent jackets next to a 'small excavating machine' underground.
So the latest in a long running saga to prevent houses and roads falling
into the ground due to the very small depth below the surface. Is there
anything worth preserving on the surface, now that most of the underground
is being filled in?
All the best
Roger
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