The floods caused significant damage on parts of the Rochdale Canal, Calder & Hebble Navigation and Aire & Calder Navigation and we're delighted to be reopening more than 12 miles of waterway ahead of the busy Easter period.
Getting to this point has been a real team effort with our engineers and waterway teams being helped by volunteers, canal societies, waterside businesses and local employers.
Fundraising appeal
We've seen tremendous community spirit and solidarity over the past three months and this has been epitomised in the support we've had for our fundraising appeal. The appeal has now closed and we'll be announcing how much has been raised shortly.
We're very grateful for the generosity that has been shown and the money raised will help to get life back to normal on those waterways affected, reinstating important links for local communities and boaters alike.
Additional Easter openings
Since our last update we've revised our programme slightly in order to reopen an additional section of the Calder & Hebble Navigation in time for Easter.
Following requests from local boaters we are now also aiming to reopen the section between Brighouse and Cooper Bridge. This will enable boaters at Brighouse to access the Huddersfield Broad Canal. We're also reopening the Figure of Three Locks which will reopen access along the Calder & Hebble to Wakefield and beyond.
Repairs are still being carried out on the towpath and canal banks and we're also holding water levels down between Kirklees Top and Bottom Locks so boaters are advised to proceed with care through these areas.
You can see a broad timetable for reopening flood-hit sections of the Rochdale Canal and Calder & Hebble Navigation on the map below.
More detail about our ongoing work on the Rochdale Canal can be found on our Manchester & Pennine pages.
In addition, we're pleased to say that the Aire & Calder Navigation, which was also badly damaged during the floods, is now fully reopened to boats.
There's still a lot more to be done but we hope that, whether on a boat or on foot, people in the Calder Valley enjoy getting out onto their local waterways this Easter.
For more details on which sections of canal are opening by when please sign up to receive notifications
You can read the stories of people affected by the Boxing Day floods here
