This latest edition asks you to join us for exciting boating news, talks about work we've done for boaters and invites you to an online forum just for boaters, among others!
Annual Public Meeting to share actions for improving boating
Hosted online by chair, David Orr CBE, and chief executive, Richard Parry, all boaters are invited to join us at our Annual Public Meeting.
Covering a wide range of topics, one particular focus will come from head of boating and customer services, Matthew Symonds, who’ll speak about plans to improve boater satisfaction with actions developed through a series of workshops with the boater representatives on our Council and navigation advisory group.
There’ll also be an announcement about the recruiting of a further volunteer trustee to sit on our Board who will bring extensive boating experience and insight.
Richard Parry says: “Maintaining our canals for navigation is our core focus: without navigation, the canals as we know them today would not exist together with the tremendous benefits that navigable canals bring to local communities.
“Boaters are at the heart of so many decisions we make, but we know many aren’t satisfied with their experience. We need to change that and have worked with our boating colleagues to develop a plan that reiterates that navigation is our priority: looking at how we can ease some of the problems that boaters tell us about. With a new set of key performance indicators around navigation, boaters will be able to see that we are delivering on the things that matter to them.”
So, don’t forget, on 6 November at 1pm, to tune into our live stream and join our Annual Public Meeting. If you are unable to make the live event, it will be recorded and available for you to view later.
A Heulwen Trust narrowboat on the Montgomery Canal
Working for boaters - highlights
Although we’re well on our way into the dark and cold months of winter, the recent weather has been relatively benign. One or two periods of intense rain and wind, however, have still managed to impact the network. Our first spotlight on recent work that’s taken place for boaters is one such 21-tonne impact!
Pining for a crane
A giant 21-tonne tree, Scots Pine to be precise, has been craned out of the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal near Blaby.
During one of the recent storms mentioned above, the tree was blown down and ended up blocking the canal and preventing navigation and use of the towpath. Because of the size of the tree, we needed to bring in a crane and seat it on steel matting so it could be removed safely without damaging the canal bank and surrounding area.
The cost of removing the tree ran into several thousand pounds, due to its size and position.
Richard Walker, contract manager, said: “Trees falling into the canals can present us with some real challenges. Not only can they block navigation for boats, but they can cause significant damage and, because towpaths were built for horses to tow boats rather than heavy modern-day machinery, this can present several access challenges.
“We carry out proactive tree works outside of the nesting season and remove windblown branches and trees from our network year-round. With winter approaching, and a changing climate that is bringing more frequent and severe storms, we will be on-hand over the months ahead to keep navigation open.”
The giant Dunns Lock tree prior to falling, coutesy of Google StreetView
Is it Scarecastle?
Yesterday, up and down the country, millions of children were enjoying spooktacular Halloween events. So it's perhaps timely that a few days earlier, our surveyors and engineers entered the so-called ‘haunted Harecastle’.
The tunnel has the reputation of being one of the most haunted in Britain, home to the infamous Kidsgrove Boggart. It is said that a woman arrived in Kidsgrove on her way to join her husband in London. She accepted a lift with some boatmen and was murdered for the valuables in her luggage. Her body was hidden in a culvert off the main tunnel leading to Goldenhill colliery, known as ‘Gilberts Hole’: when her body was found, she had been beheaded.
One hundred and eighty years later, our tunnel specialists used a boat mounted with an inspection platform to travel through the hand-dug tunnel. At over 1½ miles-long (2,676 metres), the Thomas Telford-built tunnel is a key point on the Trent & Mersey Canal, with thousands of boats passing through it each year.
Jonathan Muir, senior tunnel surveyor, said: “Built two centuries ago, Harecastle Tunnel is a marvel of the Industrial Revolution. It is vital that we give it the care and attention that it deserves, with every part of the network an important piece of the jigsaw to keep the canals open and alive.
“Inspecting the tunnel means travelling slowly through the tunnel, painstakingly tapping the old bricks to ensure their structural integrity, measuring the profile of the tunnel to check for any movement, and monitoring for any leaks or cracks. The inspection will determine what maintenance and conservation repairs our charity needs to programme in.”
Approaching the end of Harecastle Tunnel
Holt up, work is underway
Essential repairs to the Grade II-Listed Holt Lock on the River Severn in Worcestershire have begun. The top and bottom gates of the 180-year-old lock are being repaired as part of work to maintain and improve the structure for boaters navigating the river.
Costing £280,000, the work includes improvements to the lock cills and replacing loose brickwork and the lock ladders that run down into each chamber.
After initial inspections by divers in September, the lock has been drained so the work can be carried out. A 100-tonne crane was needed for the removal and reinstallation of the lock gates, which each weighing 6.5 tonnes.
Another mention for Thomas Telford - Holt Lock is located close to Holt Fleet Bridge, a Grade II-Listed cast-iron arch bridge that the famed civil engineer also designed. The lock itself was constructed in 1844 and is one of six on the 42½-mile River Severn navigation. It was originally built to take craft carrying up to 150 tonnes.
The work this autumn is important for boaters travelling between Stourport and Gloucester where the river is connected to the docks by Gloucester Lock, which is also due to be inspected and repaired this winter as part of our annual winter stoppage programme.
Mark Abraham, construction manager, said: "We've used large pumps to pump water out of the chamber to allow us to build scaffolding and provide access to complete the work. We are installing steel dams that have been specially designed and fabricated for the lock gates as we address previous issues with leakage.
"The works have been timed to strike the balance between avoiding the summer months while getting work done before the periods of typically higher river flows on the Severn which would flood our sites. Once completed, not only will the repairs have helped to maintain this historic structure, but they will deliver improvements for the boaters who use the lock when navigating the river for many years to come."
Balance beam crane lift Holt Lock
Working for boaters – in numbers
With over 2,000 miles of canals and rivers it’s nigh on impossible to list all the things we’ve been doing over the last fortnight to keep navigations open (I’m sure you haven’t got a spare couple of days to read the entire list!) but a scan of our stoppage notifications shows that we’ve…
Description
In the last fortnight
Since we started reporting (12 July 2024)
Removed wind-blown trees that were impeding navigation
6
101
Carried out general lock repairs such as repairing quoins and brickwork, installing new gates etc.
6
74
Fixed paddles
4
28
Repaired Elsans
3
18
Repaired bridges
2
36
Repaired pump out stations
2
26
Fixed customer service facilities (such as toilets)
2
19
Carried out dive survey/repair
2
12
Carried out Dredging project
2
13
Carried out pilling project
2
7
Carried out boater safety activities (such as placing buoys around hazards etc.)
1
8
Repaired culverts
1
6
Fixed (or in the process of fixing) embankments
15
Repaired sluices
11
Bathymetric survey (a water-based survey that maps the depths and shapes of underwater terrain)
5
Removed sunken boats
4
Tunnel inspections
2
Stoppages due to nesting birds
2
Removed sunken car
2
Worked to control invasive species (Pennywort, Duckweed)
3
Annoyingly had to clear illegal fly tipping (well, one that required a stoppage, there were plenty more!)
1
Conducted/facilitated bridge inspections
18
113
The above list doesn’t include any work conducted purely on towpaths, water management (which there’s always a lot of!), major reservoir projects and so on – it’s just a flavour of what we’ve been doing to help boaters keep moving on the cut!
Maintenance, repair and restoration work this weekend
As you’ll know there are times when we need to fix things that unexpectedly break. So, below, you’ll find a list of navigations that have ongoing restrictions that may affect you if you’re planning to get out on the water this weekend:
When restrictions to navigation happen, we get them up on to our website as soon as we can – always best to have a scan before you set off. You can find out how to get stoppage notification alerts on your smartphone in this article.
If you have any questions about a specific closure, or spot an error in our system, please get in touch.
A lock gate being made at our Bradley Workshop
Online - National Boater Forum, 26 November, 7 to 8.30pm
Ok, so there’s the Lanky, the Ashby and the Curly Wurley but almost all canals have them and it’s incredibly likely that you’ve used one. You’ve guessed it, we’re talking locks.
We’d love for you to come and join us for a virtual tour of our Bradley workshop and see how lock gates are built, hear about the improvements that have already been introduced and those that are planned.
The evening forum is all about lock gates and will provide an overview of the inspection process, build, replacement and how we’re planning to meet the upcoming challenge of gates that are coming to the end of their serviceable life.
Questions for the workshop manager and head of direct services can be submitted in advance with answers provided during the forum, there will also be time available for questions on the night.
And finally, it’s not only the clocks that have changed…
If you regularly cruise during the colder months you’ll know that, from 1 November until 31 March, most short-stay moorings revert to 14 days unless signed otherwise. This doesn’t apply to the really busy ones though – please do check the signs carefully as these moorings will remain time restricted all year round.
A correction – size isn’t everything!
In the last edition, when talking about the work on the Don Aqueduct, I incorrectly stated that the New Junction Canal was the last canal to be built for commercial use. Well, I have been reliably informed, by a very knowledgeable source, that I’m wrong and it is, in fact the rather short stretch of canal, it still counts, between Limehouse Basin and the Limehouse Cut which was built in 1968 by British Waterways.
Have a great weekend,
Damian
Last Edited: 01 November 2024
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