A35 Abbas - non Highways drains

The A35 Highway Drainage systems maintained by the Highways England are shown on our main survey drawings Section 4 and also specifically (but less clearly !) on Highways England's drawings in section 5a. Their survey report of July 2014 relating to these systems can be found in Section 6 (Reports).

The two SWCFAG drawings attached below have been made to show the "non Highways" surface water drainage that exist in Winterbourne Abbas. There are some 27 No drains that run under the highway from the north side to discharge into the stream on the south side of the A35.

At January 2016, only the points of discharge into the stream are known along with the drain diameter and material type. These drains have been given reference numbers and it is hoped that the next stage for SWCFAG will be a volunteer effort to try and rod the drains, ID them and record them as far as possible with a drain camera that the Parish Council has managed to get funded. It may be possible to start to ascertain where the various drains run from.

Some villagers relate that the major roadways undertaken in 2000 (the substructure to 300mm deep was renewed) caused major vibration in their houses and they allege that a number of these drains were damaged or crushed by these works. The Highways Agency (now Highways England) naturally dispute this ! Some villagers also relate how the drains always used to run during rainfall but have not since the works.

The ownership / status of these non HE drains is unknown and is probably legally complex. It is clear that Highways England do not feel that they are responsible for them in anyway. They cannot really belong to riparian owners as they were presumably installed by an authority / agency when the ditch / stream on the north side of the Highway was filled in. (date ?)

NB : The drawings can be downlaoded by double clicking on the drawing - they can be read at A4 size but at A3 size they are approx 1:900 scale.