Progress around the system

Progress S&N

The Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust volunteers are coming to the end of their marathon project to cast a concrete base at Wappenshall East Basin

Shrewsbury & Newport Canals

Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust volunteers reached a major milestone on 5 February, when the 101st (and last) concrete slab was cast over its polythene liner in the East Basin at Wappenshall, the junction where the Shrewsbury Canal and the Shropshire Union Newport Arm (the ‘Newport Canal’) meet. Started on the 26 September 2020, the team have done an amazing job to complete this part of the restoration of Wappenshall Wharf because the pandemic, material shortages, floods and some extreme weather conditions have conspired to make it very challenging indeed.

The majority of these slabs were 5.25m long x 2.5m wide and 150mm thick and contained reinforcing mesh. Most concrete pours involved 8-10 cubic metres of mix-onsite concrete being transported in a dumper truck, tipped into the timber formwork, spread with spazzles, vibrated with a petrol driven concrete vibrator, then finished off with a heavy timber tamp. I think that doing this work improved the whole team’s fitness levels, as it was very heavy, physical work. Thanks must go to our Project Leader, William Jones, who used his wealth of experience to ensure the job was done correctly and that all the levels were right.

We now move on to finishing the brickwork on the top third of the basin’s newly built northern retaining wall; installing two escape ladders; re-pointing the existing stone and brick basin walls; installing an electric pump that will initially fill, then maintain, water levels; and replacing rusted bolts with stainless ones to hold the iron rubbing strakes to the lock walls.

Once these jobs are completed, we will re-water the basin. This is planned to be done in the autumn.

Pictures by SUCS One of the final basin floor slabs being prepared for concrete and (below) the final slab cast under the large warehouse

Progress Montgomery

The Shropshire Union Canal Society’s volunteers are pressing on towards Crickheath - but meanwhile more funds are needed for School House Bridge

Montgomery Canal

The Shropshire Union Canal Society (SUCS) has been involved with progressively restoring the channel of the Montgomery Canal between Redwith and Crickheath since 2008.

The current project is to extend the channel from Pryces Bridge to Crickheath Winding Hole, which will form the temorary terminus when the next length of canal is reopened from the current limit at Gronwen. Dambusting Volunteers Triumph:

The main task for the early March Shropshire Union Canal Society (SUCS) work party volunteers was to remove a massive clay bund (dam) which was towpath high and six metres wide; it retained the water in the previously restored 250 metre section at Pryce’s Bridge. This water and a massive accumulation between the bund and Crickheath Wharf took just over two days to pump out sufficiently to allow the blocks, and four layers of liner that had waterproofed the inside slope of the bund, to be taken down.

The bund had to be removed to allow the completed 250 metres to join the 330 metre section under construction at the correct depth. When a length of channel is lined with four layers of waterproofing materials, it is then ‘paved’ with building blocks to weight down these materials.

On the Saturday it was just about possible to begin removing blocks and liner from the inner slope until the base of the channel became visible as the pumping out continued. The working conditions were, at worst very, very, challenging, and, at best difficult, with sometimes a foot of water in some places, but the 17 volunteers kept battling on with the dirty heavy work.

By Saturday afternoon the removal of the Bund had begun using a large digger and a dumper to transport the clay away, and by the close of play on Sunday three quarters of it had disappeared.

Whilst the pumping out was taking place on Friday, 400 saplings were planted along the base of the outer edge of the towpath embankment to stabilise a section of the of the newly constructed canal channel. Lengths of heavy lining material were

cut to size and laid along the offside of the channel in preparation for completing the next 60 metre section

Channel shaping can now take place to match the new section under construction to the existing completed profile.

All in all, this was a superb effort by a very dedicated team of volunteers working the terrible conditions and a significant amount of preparation was achieved.

Dambusted - ‘Completely’! SUCS

Volunteers returned at the end of March, and this time the weather was very kind, which contributed to another very productive four days of hard work for the 26 that took part.

As a result the channel is now a continuous curved line, joining the previously lined and blocked section from Pryce’s Bridge to the current section under construction.

The first task of this work party was to pump out the vast volumes of collected water in the channel being restored, so that the remaining third of the bund could be removed.

Other tasks included painting the four storage shipping containers, in a vibrant green, to protect and maintain them. Many tonnes of soil were power-barrowed along the tops of both sides of the of the length of canal being restored, and spread down the outsides of the banks to promote grass and vegetation growth.

It is anticipated we will complete the work to Crickheath and re-water the canal by the end of 2022.

Beyond Crickheath: toward Llanymynech Please support the Appeal

The progress report on these pages describes Shropshire Union Canal Society volunteers’s recent work on lining the length of formerly dry canal from Redwith to Crickheath, which is approaching completion and will enable the canal to reopen to boats as far as Crickheath Wharf.

But meanwhile work has already begun on the sections beyond Crickheath. SUCS volunteers have cleared vegetation to allow assessment of the next 200 metre phase to be restored. The old Tramway Wharf will be reconstructed as will the wash-walls. A survey of the canal channel from Crickheath Bridge to the site of School House Bridge has been commissioned by CRT to enable towpath levels and the working depth to be established.

At the same time, advanced plans are in place to rebuild the demolished School House Bridge in 2022 which is a project being run in parallel by the Restore The Montgomery Canal group. It’s a public road crossing, so the main construction work will need to be done by professional contractors. Initial work began in September 2020, but rising costs have meant that the public Appeal to fund it needs to raise more cash for the work to be completed.

This is the last road blockage still to be dealt with on the English length leading to where the canal crosses the Welsh border at Llanymynech. It’s a crucial part of the restoration - especially given that major funding has recently been agreed for the next section leading onwards into Wales.

So we’ve included an Appeal leaflet in this issue of Navvies - please consider giving something to the Appeal.

Martin Ludgate Bridge needed here: the site of School House Bridge

Progress Wendover

Meanwhile The Wendover Canal Trust are dealing with a tricky leakage problem, planning to build a narrows, and installing a memorial bench

Grand Union Wendover Arm February working party

The narrows: Wendover Canal Trust’s main activity for the next few months, will be to construct a narrow section of canal (a “narrows”). This will be just beyond the current limit of navigation for boats visiting the canal at the Little Tring winding hole, which we built in Phase 1 of the restoration, opened in 2005. This narrows is necessary to prevent wider boats trying to go any further, since they would not be able to pass any other boat as they go through our relined channel. We have been carefully excavating next to the winding hole, to expose the end of the Phase 1 concrete walls and lining. Ash removal: Just next to the excavation site, there was some ash (from when the canal was filled in with domestic waste) to remove from the site of the planned narrows. Chemical Analysis last year had determined that most of the ash has been found to be non-hazardous (including all the ash removed last month). A small amount of ash in a specific location was found to include a higher lead content. All this material, six lorry-loads, was removed for processing at a site near Peterborough. We are not planning any further ash removal in the near future.

Margaret’s Bench: Overlooking this winding hole, there has for some time been an oak tree. This was planted by Margaret Leishman, the wife of our Vice President Roger, who for many years was our Restoration Director. In Margaret’s memory, Roger has now sponsored a bench alongside the oak tree. This is a lovely location to remember Margaret. Re-watering from Bridge 4a to 4:

Our ongoing work has not yet explained the water loss in this section where we have completed the channel lining. Our volunteers have been checking levels most days even when there isn’t a work party. There are some signs that the rate of water loss has reduced, though we don’t know why this should be. Relining remains temporarily paused.

Update from March working party

Narrows: A lot of rain on the first day made conditions difficult. But by the end of the week ground conditions had improved so much that 23 dumper loads (about 4 lorry loads) were successfully removed.

Around the edges of this hole, we did a lot of manual digging to separate the last of the ash from the coal tar layer (dating from an early attempt to waterproof the leaky canal bed) underneath – we have to do this so that the ash can be sent away uncontaminated with coal tar. This ash, and any clay we dig out which is not contaminated with coal tar, is stacked in separate piles near the road ready for removal, while anything with coal tar in it is added to the existing separate piles. Being this careful will save us a lot of money in spoil removal. Unexplained water loss Bridge 4a to 4: Our ongoing work has not yet explained the water loss in this section. We drained it down as far as possible ready for some work. We’d like to know whether one end is losing more water than the other, so this month in the bed of the canal in front of Whitehouses, we constructed temporary block walls either end of the concrete canal bottom (see picture below). We will now be able to put some water back into this section, and find out whether Bridge 4a to Whitehouses is losing more or less water than Whitehouses to Bridge 4, or even whether the loss is at Whitehouses itself.

Constructing these temporary block walls took much more effort than it sounds, because all materials including well over a hundred heavy concrete blocks, had to be transported along the towpath for the second half of their journey, using a trolley and wheelbarrows. Finally the blocks got a special treat, a slide down a scaffold plank from the towpath into the canal! Temporary block walls at Whitehouses to try to track down the leak Margaret’s memorial bench

Clive Johnson Wendover Canal Trust page 33