Lock 46 (Barrowford) - Leeds & Liverpool Canal

The team completed laying the concrete on Saturday evening and returned to site on Sunday to finish pointing the cills and to manage the pumps.  The completed works are currently being inspected by our engineers.

We will be carrying out controlled tests on the gates tomorrow and then opening the lock on Wednesday morning with boaters being penned through the lock by the customer operations team on Wednesday and Thursday under a restriction. 

Staff will be on site to oversee the passages from 9am to 12pm and 1pm to 4pm.  The locks will be padlocked at 4pm overnight.

Following the closure of the lock on Sunday, investigations have confirmed voiding beneath the lock floor has caused the concrete that supports the bottom of the gates to lift up. This makes the lock unsafe to operate as it may fail suddenly whilst in use.

Understanding the need for opening the Leeds & Liverpool as soon as possible the teams have been working to remove the concrete and design a repair, and the anticipated opening date is Wednesday 22nd June. Trust staff will continue to work over the weekend to complete the repair and a brief outline of the programme is given below:

Thursday 16/6

• Concrete broken out and removed
• Design agreed
• Materials ordered
• Steel reinforcement made up ready to be installed on site

Friday 17/6

• Steel reinforcement placed in the lock chamber
• Chute for concrete pour erected on site
• Delivery of materials etc 
• Fill the voids below the lock

Saturday 18/6

• Placing of the Concrete

Sunday 19/6

• Remove equipment and temporary works from the lock
• Finish off any re-pointing around the concrete

Monday and Tuesday 20 and 21/6

• Allow the concrete to harden – this is really important to ensure that the concrete will last and that the gates are durable for the foreseeable future.

Wednesday 22/6

• Fill the lock with water and open up the canal

A further update will follow on Monday.

Our teams have inspected the lock and confirmed that the concrete tail bay has lifted.  

We now plan to dewater the lock fully and cut up the concrete tail bay.  Once this has been done we will be in a better position to plan the repair and estimate the duration of the closure.

The dewatering and removing concrete tail bay will take a few days. 

An update will be issued on Thursday.

Lock 46 at Barrowford on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is currently closed due to an issue with the cill. 

Our teams are currently investigating the issue and we anticipate the area will remain closed for a minimum of one week.

An update will be issued tomorrow.