Cheshire cat

There are plenty of youtube videos showing how to clean a jet. Some are better than others............

A word of warning. Before you buy a filler imagine how you will get out to go to the loo in the night. It's especially tricky if you've got a decent amount of tumblehome. There probably won't be a problem if your cabin sides are vertical.

I had a good look at the footings on the downstream side of the bridge. They look ok as far as I can tell but a wash wall immediately after the bridge on the left hand bank has collapsed so there is some scouring taking place. It's difficult to view the upstream side due to the presence of the tram line to Altrincham

I keep thinking about getting one but I'm not totally convinced. I'm attracted by their compactness from a boating point of view. Do they ride as well as any other decent bike? I'm not wanting to cycle the towpath. Just to get some exercise when we are moored up.

Target date for reopening is 28th February

The planning application is 115163/FUL/24 on Trafford councils website. It's merely seaking permission to put lots more tell tales and other monitoring studs on a listed structure. There are some interesting documents including one that suggests it has been moving since the 1800's. The flood documents attached to the application are very extensive although there is no depth gauge at the actual bridge. For my money the water that Jim is concerned about is definitely too much to be melting ground water. It does look to me as some of the stonework has suffered from frost heave in the recent bad weather.

Hi Wafi. There are some more pictures taken last week at the bottpm of page 17 of this thread. You can see that the arch has been sagging for some time from the brickwork which was obviously added at a much later date than the bridges construction. The main worry is the damage caused when the Mersey is in flood. The arch becomes full. Although the arch appears sound there is a question mark around the lateral forces that come in to play. The photographed wall does belly out a little. The glass tells aren't busted. They've been coloured with indelible marker I think. A couple have fallen off and left tell tale signs. It would provide Sale cruising club with a very limited cruising range!

It is only a stone bridge but when it goes it will close the canal for a year or so and be another multi million pound fix. The failing structure is towpath side so if we're lucky the canal may not empty.

I hope you've got Tiger moored up well if she's at Stretford Jim! 😧

Here's the elephant in the room as far as any handover to CRT goes. Jim P mentioned it further up the thread. This is the bridge that carries the canal over the River Mersey. The downstream side is cracked, slumping and bellying out! As you can see the crack is being monitored but some of the glass slides have gone missing. This bridge is a bottleneck as far as the Mersey is concerned. Looking at the debris in the trees on the upstream side on New Years Day the water level was 5 metres plus higher. Huge forces in play.

I saw elsewhere that the sewage processing plant has some kind of problem caused by the breach and UU are having to tanker away the sludge on a daily basis.

How do you read the Annual Report? Are they comfortable that the canal company has a future or are they kicking the can down the road and will revisit potential winding up at the next annual meeting?

A meeting was held in the local pub this morning. A representative of the Bridgewater canal company explained to the stranded boaters and affected farmers how they would build coffer dams and rewater the sections where boats are stranded. He was asked about the rebuilding of the channel. Unsurprisingly he declined to provide an answer.

That's bad news. Enjoyrd my last visit to the Limekilns but it was two years ago

I can see an argument for keeping it open in that it allows traffic around the Cheshire Ring which is of marginal benefit to all the councils through which the canal passes but given that all the mentioned councils are struggling to balance their books I can't see them being very keen to chip in to the costs of the repair this time.

There's more info on the current situation if you go back to the 1920's page

Who did pay?

I was just wondering if the bridge arch was completely submerged. Apart from worries about its strength the canal bridge must represent a threat to all the flood defences further upstream. Annoyingly the figures only go back five days for the monitoring station. A better gauge is the plastic debris in the trees along the bank

In Jim's ,photo at Stretford the canal is up at least 15". I think you are right. It's overtopped at the lowest point and the rest is history.

Do you have any pictures of the level of the Mersey at that time?

I don't know where the boundary is but many of the farmers in that area are tennants of the National Trust. Presumably it was all handed over as the Dunham Estate.

As Liam says, there's a very nice tarmaced surface on the towpath until approx 1 mile short of the breach. The Sustran route diverts from the canal to the Trans Pennine trail at this point. To be fair to Warrington council they do put effort in to maintaining their part of the Trans Pennine trail to a much greater degree than the Manchester councils. We're all looking in from the outside but as far as I can see the only lever available is for the local councils to drag their heels on any planning applications submitted by Peel until the situation is resolved. Whether that is "allowed" or would have the desired effect I don't know.

It'sOK. I've worked it out. Google maps shows the tram bridge as Barfoot Bridge

What has Barfoot Bridge got to do with Peel?