It works! We have managed to get the first block of vegetation placed safely and securely, with very little sediment crumbling away from the sides and with he side of the block securely next to the flume wall, thanks to the brilliant design of the drill-driven mega ‘cake slice shifter’ type device built for this purpose by the GWK team.
The marsh block is brought in on the fork lift truck and placed in front of a ‘base board’ onto which the mount for the ‘cake slice shifter’ is fixed at one end. The fork lift then pushes the block, with the frame around it in place, carefully off the pallet onto the board. The plastic underlay allows it to slide easily with minimal soil deformation. Big relief by all!
Then, the block is carried on the base plate by the crane to the placement position, where the wooden frame is removed and it is then shifted off the base board, using a strong board and the ‘cake shifter’ mechanism. This also pushes it tightly against the paddle end of the flume. A car jack is then used to push the pallet from one flume wall onto the other flume wall (or any adjacent, already placed pallets).
A great technique, but it takes time… One down, 200 to go… Let’s see if we can speed up the process to get all 200 placed in time for the start of our experimental schedule in October…