Marple nd Bosley flights closed

[Arthur Marshall]

"we have taken the decision to close the Marple flight on the Peak Forest canal and the Bosley flight on the Macclesfield canal whilst we manage the potential risks.  "

https%3A//canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/15840-marple-flight-peak-forest-canal-and-bosley-flight-macclesfield-canal

Edited August 1, 2019 by Arthur Marshall

[Sea Dog]

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

"we have taken the decision to close the Marple flight on the Peak Forest canal and the Bosley flight on the Macclesfield canal whilst we manage the potential risks.  "

https%3A//canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/15840-marple-flight-peak-forest-canal-and-bosley-flight-macclesfield-canal

Oh heck, there goes many an escape plan! 

[matty40s]

1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

"we have taken the decision to close the Marple flight on the Peak Forest canal and the Bosley flight on the Macclesfield canal whilst we manage the potential risks.  "

https%3A//canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/15840-marple-flight-peak-forest-canal-and-bosley-flight-macclesfield-canal

I would think they need to put stop planks in on the whole stretch, as who knows how much damage could be caused, and over what distance if that dam breaches

[matty40s]

10 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Oh heck, there goes many an escape plan! 

I would think CRT need to manage an escape plan - with radio contact to CRT HQ at Whaley Bridge in case the dam does go then they can evacuate those areas too.

[BilgePump]

At a rough guess anyone have an idea how many boats would be on that stretch at the moment? Furness, New Mills, Marple, Lyme View marinas and then down to Bosley plus all the moorings at Poynton etc. Loads more permanents moorers plus everyone else in the area temporarily on top of those numbers. There'll be a fair few hire boats caught too. Just hope that the nature of the dam means that despite it looking awful with panels gone and loss of soil beneath, there is still sufficient mass of earth left there and overspill can be kept away from that part.

 

Can but keep fingers crossed for those who are affected but surely this should now start a debate about why it maybe wasn't the best idea to put major infrastructure in the hands of a charitable trust, require labour from volunteers and rely on for-profit contractors, glossy branding and funding from donations that cost just as much to raise. When you have 1.2 million tons of water sitting above a small town, you have a moral responsibility to protect those people. Perfect combination of a CaRT reservoir, with their canal and a river very close by and only a matter of feet below it.  Monsoon torrential rains in the area on top and it's a nasty combination. Was it last month they announced a million ish for dredging the Upper Peak as one of their major projects? Yes, that is desperately needed but sadly that kind of money is just fiddling around at the edges of the kind of work overall that needs to be undertaken to keep a 200+ year old network functioning and maintain its heritage status.

[DandV]

7 hours ago, BilgePump said:

At a rough guess anyone have an idea how many boats would be on that stretch at the moment? Furness, New Mills, Marple, Lyme View marinas and then down to Bosley plus all the moorings at Poynton etc. Loads more permanents moorers plus everyone else in the area temporarily on top of those numbers. There'll be a fair few hire boats caught too. Just hope that the nature of the dam means that despite it looking awful with panels gone and loss of soil beneath, there is still sufficient mass of earth left there and overspill can be kept away from that part.

 

Can but keep fingers crossed for those who are affected but surely this should now start a debate about why it maybe wasn't the best idea to put major infrastructure in the hands of a charitable trust, require labour from volunteers and rely on for-profit contractors, glossy branding and funding from donations that cost just as much to raise. When you have 1.2 million tons of water sitting above a small town, you have a moral responsibility to protect those people. Perfect combination of a CaRT reservoir, with their canal and a river very close by and only a matter of feet below it.  Monsoon torrential rains in the area on top and it's a nasty combination. Was it last month they announced a million ish for dredging the Upper Peak as one of their major projects? Yes, that is desperately needed but sadly that kind of money is just fiddling around at the edges of the kind of work overall that needs to be undertaken to keep a 200+ year old network functioning and maintain its heritage status.

Is this just not another result of an austerity government not providing any where near  enough resources to the care givers, to look after the elderly and infirm, in this case heritage structures, and as a result losing them to premature systemic failure?

Edited August 2, 2019 by DandV

[BilgePump]

News says in addition to pumping they are now using a Chinook to drop bags of aggregate onto the dam and blocking feeder watercourses. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49201467 If  Toddbrook res is being drawn down and repair is going to be a major civil engineering undertaking, it won't be a like a one week lock-gate repair. Without a feeder the locks would empty the stretch. So that 'on-going' bit for lock closures sounds as though it will be quite a while unless they have a serious trick up their sleeve. Today's weather is decent for the area so hope the sun brings some hope to Whaley's residents and those further down. 

[Boater Sam]

There is a little voice in my head that keeps saying that if the trees growing out of the spillway had been removed and the joints in the slabs repointed then this failure would not of happened. 

The slabs failed at the top of the dam, not the bottom where the most turbulence would be, leading me to think that the increase in water going over the spillway is not the prime cause of failure.

 

But then I am not the chartered civil engineer with a record of failures and errors since I took up the position. Minworth, Marple Locks, Middlewich Branch, Hurleston, LLangollen.

[mayalld]

58 minutes ago, BilgePump said:

News says in addition to pumping they are now using a Chinook to drop bags of aggregate onto the dam and blocking feeder watercourses. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49201467 If  Toddbrook res is being drawn down and repair is going to be a major civil engineering undertaking, it won't be a like a one week lock-gate repair. Without a feeder the locks would empty the stretch. So that 'on-going' bit for lock closures sounds as though it will be quite a while unless they have a serious trick up their sleeve. Today's weather is decent for the area so hope the sun brings some hope to Whaley's residents and those further down. 

In all probability, they will need to keep Toddbrook low, but not actually empty, and it is not the only reservoir for the pound.

[Jerra]

38 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

But then I am not the chartered civil engineer with a record of failures and errors since I took up the position. Minworth, Marple Locks, Middlewich Branch, Hurleston, LLangollen.

Are you sugesting that the panel engineer who has the legal responsibility for independantly inspecting this reservoir has been inspecting all your other examples?

[Neil2]

Emma Barnett quite rightly gave Richard Parry what for on Newsnight last night.  

 

Two years, two extreme weather events.  Too little rain, too much rain.  Ms Barnett exposed CRT's complacency in the light of the now well known results of climate change, and he shot himself in the foot claiming that they had more than adequate financial resources to cope - in which case how can you excuse the Whaley Bridge incident?  

 

But I'm still seething at the lack of any government representation on the show.  I suppose they were all preparing their script/excuses for the by-election disaster instead.

[Arthur Marshall]

Flights open again now.