Lock 65 Top Lock, Lock 68, Lock 73 (Wigan Flight Lock 9), Lock 77, Lock 80 (Wigan Flight Lock 16), Lock 83, Railway Lock, Wigan Flight, Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Unfortunately it has taken us longer than expected to remove the equipment from the lock and as a consequence we have not been able to remove the water pumps from the lock chamber. Regrettably we are now opening at midday tomorrow. Please accept our apologies for the further delays and any inconvenience this causes.

On Tuesday 19th April boats waiting at the bottom of Wigan Flight will be let through the locks 2 at a time. There may need to be some pauses in allowing passage to manage water levels.

Boats waiting at the top above Lock 73 will be let through around 2pm, please note this may need to be pushed back to 3pm depending on how works at Lock 73 are progressing.

From Wednesday 20th April, passage will commence as usual under the following guidance.

To help conserve water in the local area, please be advised of the following operating times for the Wigan Flight, Lock 65 (Top of Wigan Flight) to Lock 85 (Bottom of Wigan Flight):

Open at 8am, close at 4pm. Last entry 12pm

The above locks will be padlocked closed outside of these times. Roving lock keepers will be on the Wigan Flight to oversee passages and ensure the water levels are maintained.  Please note, this is not an assisted passage.If you experience any issues whilst on the flight, please call our North West Customer Support Team on 03030 404040.

We regret to inform you that this stoppage needs to be extended further and that Lock 73 will not be operational until Tuesday 19th April at 17:00 hours. We know that this update is disappointing and that this is going to cause some disruption and inconvenience to our customers, especially over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend and we are very sorry for this.

To give some insight into the delay, the crane Boat that the team on site are using to complete these works suffered another breakdown. The repairs were complex and took longer than expected to complete in order to get the crane boat back up and running.

This has had a knock on effect with regards to the completion of these works. Over the coming days and into the Easter Weekend, the cills will be fitted and the concrete will be poured. Time is then needed to allow the concrete to set sufficiently.

Our Teams have been working together to come up with some urgent solutions in order to get this job completed as quickly as we possibly can. This includes additional workforce over the weekend where it is possible and a fitter on standby over the weekend should the crane boat suffer any further issues.

If there are any further updates, we will communicate these out. Once again, please accept our apologies.

We are very sorry to advise that we need to extend this stoppage beyond the 8th April 2022. Amongst many challenges faced on this stoppage from gate delivery delays, equipment breakdowns and also vandalism, there have also been some unforeseen challenges when fitting the gates. The team have got to reset the cills and this means that the concrete behind them will need a couple of days to cure before the lock can be rewatered. The team on site will be working continuously to complete this repair as quickly as we possibly can, this includes weekend working. The navigation is now scheduled to be reopened on Wednesday 13th April after 4pm. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this causes.

This Stoppage has been extended. Unfortunately, we have had to extend this Stoppage. Repairs were required to our workboat on site which is needed to complete these works and a further delay occurred after the pounds were drained of water as a result of vandalism. This Stoppage is now scheduled to finish on 08/04/2022.  Lock 73 is close by to the breach at Rishton which is due to end 08/04/2022, therefore we hope that this change should not cause too much disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

Due to unforeseen circumstances within our workshops manufacturing the Lock Gates for Lock 73, we have had to rephase the end date of this stoppage. This stoppage site is close to the breach at Rishton which is due to end in early April. Therefore we anticipate that this change should hopefully not cause too much disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

A stoppage is required to carry out the following:

Locks 65 Top Lock, Lock 68, Lock 73, Lock 77 & Lock 83 will all have resin grouting put behind the lock walls to fill up any voids and prevent deterioration of the lock structure.

Lock 73 will also be having new bottom gates installed (offside tail gate heel post split)

Lock 80 requires some repair works to the head gate.