Photos taken June 2011 (leveling the site)

Here are photos that have been taken on and around the regeneration site in the first half of June 2011, as it is all leveled out to the required 2 metres, which will then make the land ready for building work on the Tesco development to begin.

Here is a link to a very large panoramic photo that I have taken of the Tesco site, that I am unable to upload here, It may take a few seconds to load up fully as it is full resoloution. All you need to do on it is scroll down and across to view more of the panorama!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alextm/5814960461/sizes/o/in/photostream

The photo above was taken looking down onto the south side of the site, close to where the new road junction will be built. The area off to the left will be comprised of the car park and the Tesco store.

This photo above shows dumper truck tracks in the sand after they had just parked up for the night just before 8pm (the time they are currently allowed to work until) with small mounds of infill still waiting to be moved around the site.

Here you see a dumper truck dropping off a load of Manure into the middle of the site, ready to be distributed around the edges of the banks of infill around the site.

In the middle of this photo above is the area where the Tesco store will be built with the bank covered in manure in the foreground. A bit smelly at the moment, but that will soon wear off.

The photo above was taken looking through the south western gate on the site. A location where I have shot numerous photos from in the past, to show how this particular area has changed. Running through the middle of the photo used to be the access road to the nursery on site before the work began at the start of this year. In a few months time, this area will form the car park for the Tesco store, with the petrol station further north.

Above is a small hive of activity in the middle of the site, where some of the last surcharge infill is being shifted ready for distribution around the site.

The photo above was taken from the south edge of the site, looking along the area where the Tesco store will be in a few months time.

The panoramic photo I took above, shows the area, where the Tesco store will be once building work is completed, this is the final height of the land which will start to be built on within the next few weeks.

The Panoramic photo above was made up of 6 photos I have stitched together. It was taken looking to where the back of the store will be and if you click on the photo to enlarge it, basically the flat area is the store footprint, where building work will begin in the next few weeks.

This photo was taken from the south of the site looking northwards. The area in the centre of the image from middle to bottom, will be where the eastern facing wall of the Tesco store will be, with the car park on the right hand side (where the diggers etc. are) and the fuel station further north.

Above is one of the excavators on site loading up one of the dumpers with some infill material to be transported elsewhere on the site.

The photo above was taken through the gap in the south west gate on the site. A spot I have photographed the site from since 2008. Through the centre (and 2 metres down!) would be where one of the access roads was in the holiday camp, lined with the retro style lights and weathered trees and bushes. In 6 months from now, this area will form the store car park.

This photo is just a simple view looking from south to north across the area of land where the Tesco store will be.

The above photo was looking into the Tesco area of the site from the Underfleet car park, where you can clearly see how much lower the ground level is, compared to almost the height of the overhead cables a few weeks ago.

The photo above was just quickly taken with my iphone, while walking past the site. The view here is the leveled area where the store will sit, with the Underfleet car park fence off to the left of the photo. This is one of the areas I will return to during the building work, as it should provide a clear view of the store construction over the next few months.

Photos taken May 2011

Now we are into the month of May and work on site is progressing well, with all of the pipeline infill work completed. This month will see the deconstruction of the pipeline and the two bridges and preparation work across the site to get it ready for the Tesco store construction, which is due to start mid June.

The photos above were taken looking over the Tesco site, where you can see a better view of the area, where the store and the fuel station will sit on the site. You can also see that some of the surcharge material has already been removed.

In the photo above, which was taken from the Underfleet car park, the diggers on site were busy taking the surcharge material and loading it into waiting dumper trucks to be transported across to other parts of the site.

The seagulls here are just sitting on some of the infill material close to where the Tesco store will be. Due to the method of infill, they have taken to the site well.

Above is a panorama I took looking North across the Tesco store area which is currently being leveled to 2 metres, to prepare it for building work in June.

This photo was taken looking at the south western edge of the site, where the old youth centre building will be demolished in September time to make way for the pedestrian link from the Underfleet and town, to the Tesco store once it is finished.

This photo is taken looking at a leveled area of the site, where the infill lagoons used to be situated on the site.

The selection of photos above where taken of different parts of the site on a sunny day, where work is underway to remove the surcharge material and transport it to other areas of the site in order to raise the whole site to 2 metres in height.

This photo was taken from the south side of the site, where the foreground area has already been stripped of some of the surcharge material. The raised area on the left half in the background is basically the southern edge of the store footprint, though the level of that area will also be reduced by the 10th of june as it is surcharge material to compact the ground underneath down.

The photo above was taken from the east of the site, looking west towards the dumper trucks that were frantically driving backwards and forwards picking up and dropping off loads of sand in order to make the ground level across the site at 2 metres.

Above is a panorama of 4 individual photos that I took, which were then stitched together. It is looking at the area where the lagoons were, which is now being raised to two metres in height. I will be doing more panoramic photos in this project, but using a tripod, so that they blend together better!

Above is the first area where work has started on raising the level on the site to the two metres required. This is the east of the site, where the lagoons were. Once the whole site is at the same height, work can begin on construction of the Store, car park, road, and Petrol Station for Tesco.

This photo above was taken on the 23rd of May, the first day of the work to level out the site to two metres in height. Here are two of the excavators digging up infill, ready to load the waiting dumper trucks up, which will then transport it across to another part of the site.

This photo was taken on a friday evening after most of the work had finished for the day on the site. Here you can see part of the site compound to the left, with the machines, diggers and dumper trucks etc in the middle of the photo.

Taken looking into the western side of the site, roughly where the fuel station will be, this is of one of the mini bulldozer machines driving up one of the mounds of infill material that dumper trucks have just dropped of.

Above is two photos of the southern side of the site from Harbour road. It shows the area of the fence, where the new road junction will be located to provide access for cars and lorries to the Tesco development. It will be located in between the top and bottom photos which show the views from Bay court and Norcombe Court respectively.

The photo above was originally two images, that have been merged together so that the land and sky are both exposed. It was taken on the eastern side of the site looking at the area where the lagoons used to be, with the majority of the infill material being placed further west on the site, due to the fact that that will be the first area of the regeneration site to be fully developed.

This photo above was taken from the east of the site, looking west, when no one was actively working. The darker area of ground that you can see is where the third lagoon (northern) once stood, with one of the dumper trucks used to transport the infill material across the site parked up on the northern side in the distance.

This photo above was taken from the riverside workshops looking across the site from east to west using the HDR photo technique.

The photo above here shows some of the stationary vehicles and machines parked on the southern side of the site, just north of the compound, where all of the site offices etc are located.

The photo above was taken from the tramway side of the site looking towards Haven Cliff in the distance, over the top of the surcharge infill material on the area where the Tesco store will sit at the end of the year.

This photo was taken from the back of one of the lorry trailers outside the former Station/Racal site, which was waiting to carry away 5 sections of pipeline which was used to carry infill material from the sea to the regeneration site.

The two photos images above are comparisons taken from the same spot in Seaton, just a year apart from each other, with the top image in both being the site in it's untouched state and the bottom image of both being the site with the infill + surcharge on the site.

This photo was taken on my compact digital camera as I walked past the huge crane lowering the Harbour road bridge down. The other bridge, to the north of this was lowered overnight.

The photo above was taken standing underneath the Harbour road pipeline bridge on the day it was supposed to come down, but due to one of the cranes not turning up on time, this will not happen until tomorrow, May 5th.

This photo above was taken alongside the temporary fence, which protected the pipeline as it went from the bridge to the beach. That has now been removed, with the bridge in the top of the photo, coming down tomorrow.

The photograph above was taken looking onto the Tesco side of the site from by the skatepark. From this view, you really appreciate the height of the infill in this area of the site, although a lot of this infill is just used as surcharge to compact the ground underneath down, ready for building the Tesco store in the next few months.

This is a more abstract photo looking at the netting on the infill material, where the Tesco store will eventually be at the end of the year.

This photo was taken from the east of the site looking west. The area here is where the lagoons were and at the moment, it looks like a small sandy mountain range! To the right of the mounds in the middle are workmen and excavators busy dismantling the third (north) lagoon on site.

Here is one of the excavators playing its part in taking apart the north lagoon on the site. You can see in between the arm of the excavator that the black wall has been breached as it is no longer required.

This photo was taken on my iphone looking along the tramway towards the area where the petrol station and access road to the store/car park/service area will be. With the store being located to the right hand side of the tram track.

This is a photo I took on my phone, as my camera wasn't with me at the time, it is on the eastern side of the site close to the compound, showing a lorry loading some of the sections of pipe onto it ready to take away. I imagine that this process will take the next couple of days to take all remaining pipe sections off site.

Above is a view on sunday May 1st across the site from the viewing platform. It shows a row of dumper trucks parked on a raised area of infill, close to the site compound.

The above shot was taken with a fisheye lens inside the viewing platform looking in the direction of Harbour road.