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This came through from CRT this morning.

 

Following the failure of the off-side gate, Watford Flight lock 3 on Friday 12/06/2020 we are now in the process of fabricating the necessary replacement parts. Arrangements have been made for a crane to be on site in the coming days to remove the damaged gate.

Our aim is to restore the flight to working order during the week beginning 29/06/2020, however this date is subject to change in response to any further complications.

This notice will be updated as works progress with any revisions to the estimated completion date.

 

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1 hour ago, Roland Maddock said:

This came through from CRT this morning.

 

Following the failure of the off-side gate, Watford Flight lock 3 on Friday 12/06/2020 we are now in the process of fabricating the necessary replacement parts. Arrangements have been made for a crane to be on site in the coming days to remove the damaged gate.

Our aim is to restore the flight to working order during the week beginning 29/06/2020, however this date is subject to change in response to any further complications.

This notice will be updated as works progress with any revisions to the estimated completion date.

 

That was posted here yesterday a few posts back.

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55 minutes ago, droshky said:

Whats the situation at Foxton, anybody? We were hoping to go up to the services there or at Mkt Harborough. Will we have to turn back to Crick or Welford?

Foxton was operating without booking but on reduced hours. You can get water at the top. Be aware that the services are in the bottom car park next to the toilet block. Not directly canalside. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 14/06/2020 at 20:59, Ray T said:

 

 

Openreach has full time pole testers but I forget what the frequency of the tests is now.

I have just walked down the lane in the half light and taken this photo, it looks like 6 years

IMG_20200701_213333 (2).jpg

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21 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Unfortunately just as it opens again has become the road to a lockdown.

Shame we had planned on through Leicester and points north.

The lockdown's for 2 weeks so maybe it'll be getting back to normal if you go at a leisurely pace?  You could always say you need to move to get water!

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The flight actually re-opened at about 4 o'clock yesterday (Wednesday) about an hour after we arrived. The workboat with Hiab mounted crane was pulled back out of the locks, and the volunteers, who had spent the day greasing paddled and generally preparing, decided to stay on until 6pm. to get four boats up, maybe six down, prioritising those on a schedule like us, advising those planning to go through Leicester to wait or find another route.

Despite being initially a but concerned that as we were hauling a butty it might take too long, the whole team were helpful, efficient and considerate. Seems thet're not insured for bow hauling so can't help with that, but everything else can't fault them. They are back at 8am today Thursday (not 10) to finish clearing the waiting boats.

 

The patched up gate.

 

 

IMG_20200701_163024627_HDR.jpg

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37 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

The lockdown's for 2 weeks so maybe it'll be getting back to normal if you go at a leisurely pace?  You could always say you need to move to get water!

Our normal relaxed leisurely  run is home - crick -foxton-Kilsby.... So 3 days to the lockdown area. That gentle pace gives us couple of hours cycling too. 
Friends complain as we have aged we got  slow, they go Calcutt to Langley mill in 5 days. 

In the old days we used to run Foxton to Braunston in a day with the butty.

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2 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

Friends complain as we have aged we got  slow, they go Calcutt to Langley mill in 5 days. 

Anything under three summer days for Braunston to Langley Mill is good going, or it used to be.

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3 hours ago, Rick-n-Jo said:

The flight actually re-opened at about 4 o'clock yesterday (Wednesday) about an hour after we arrived. The workboat with Hiab mounted crane was pulled back out of the locks, and the volunteers, who had spent the day greasing paddled and generally preparing, decided to stay on until 6pm. to get four boats up, maybe six down, prioritising those on a schedule like us, advising those planning to go through Leicester to wait or find another route.

Despite being initially a but concerned that as we were hauling a butty it might take too long, the whole team were helpful, efficient and considerate. Seems thet're not insured for bow hauling so can't help with that, but everything else can't fault them. They are back at 8am today Thursday (not 10) to finish clearing the waiting boats.

 

The patched up gate.

 

 

IMG_20200701_163024627_HDR.jpg

 I bet there is no guarantee with that abortion of a repair!

Hope that they measured both gates while they were at it and ordered a new pair, I think they will need them sooner rather than later.

TD'

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3 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

 I bet there is no guarantee with that abortion of a repair!

Hope that they measured both gates while they were at it and ordered a new pair, I think they will need them sooner rather than later.

TD'

It is the right hand gate that has been repaired, looks like a welded steel tube and surrounding support that has been fabricated at very short notice to allow the Summer boat trips to happen off and onto the summit.

The gates are 24 years old so will probably be replaced this winter.

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Coming down a very very wobbly napton flight yesterday, we met the gate measurer from the workshops ( Bradley?) off to measure up for new gates.

I suspect there will be gates out on the Oxford this year, given the sudden surge in traffic, and the terrible state of some of the Clayton locks. Mrs S watched  in horror as one beam moved while I was winding the paddle up. Bottom lock beam at Napton is hollowed out by rot. The metalwork is on a skyhook.

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11 minutes ago, roland elsdon said:

Coming down a very very wobbly napton flight yesterday, we met the gate measurer from the workshops ( Bradley?) off to measure up for new gates.

I suspect there will be gates out on the Oxford this year, given the sudden surge in traffic, and the terrible state of some of the Clayton locks. Mrs S watched  in horror as one beam moved while I was winding the paddle up. Bottom lock beam at Napton is hollowed out by rot. The metalwork is on a skyhook.

Please call Customer Services (or speak to the on-flight VLockie if they are on duty) if you think there is any chance of a failure.  I'm sure Canal & River Trust would rather use an hour of the Ops Teams to check it rather days/weeks of Engineering repairs.  The VLockie has access an incident reporting system to ensure it gets captured and managed if needed.

 

(Apologies if I am teaching granny to suck eggs .....)

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8 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

 I bet there is no guarantee with that abortion of a repair!

Hope that they measured both gates while they were at it and ordered a new pair, I think they will need them sooner rather than later.

TD'

Better that than wait for a new gate to be fitted. Hats off to them for showing a bit of ingenuity to get the flight open quickly.

 

My only concern would be that now the flight is open again they dont 'park' the replacement in the 'round tuit' pile.

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1 minute ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Better that than wait for a new gate to be fitted. Hats off to them for showing a bit of ingenuity to get the flight open quickly.

 

My only concern would be that now the flight is open again they dont 'park' the replacement in the 'round tuit' pile.

Looking at the other one, I think round Tuit will be sooner rather than later.

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On 14/06/2020 at 20:37, Captain Pegg said:

CRT may well use an inspection hammer but that won’t tell you the full condition of the whole section. Railway sleepers can be condition scored by a similar method but it isn’t fully sufficient for larger timbers used on bridges which are difficult to fully inspect. The situation with regard to boats versus locks is very similar given the different size of the timbers and the ease of access to inspect.

 

One method is the use of needle penetration and measure the resistance but it takes significant interpretation of the results and it’s a test undertaken by a highly trained operative. It’s probably not something that the cost of this sort of failure justifies on a routine basis given just how many tests would be needed to be achieve a meaningful outcome.

 

JP

 

 

An inspection hammer is remarkably accurate when finding and defining areas of decay/dysfunction, it works well on living and dead timber.

 

We also use a resistograph/needle penetration, it is useful but is very area specific and requires some interpretation, plus there is some discussion about opening access to clean bits of timber for fungi, the designer of the resistograph is VERY insistent that it doesn't 

 

The screwdriver/long pokey thing is useful as well but more for defining decay extent, at least for us lot

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1 hour ago, tree monkey said:

An inspection hammer is remarkably accurate when finding and defining areas of decay/dysfunction, it works well on living and dead timber.

 

We also use a resistograph/needle penetration, it is useful but is very area specific and requires some interpretation, plus there is some discussion about opening access to clean bits of timber for fungi, the designer of the resistograph is VERY insistent that it doesn't 

 

The screwdriver/long pokey thing is useful as well but more for defining decay extent, at least for us lot

I don’t disagree; I’ve got one and I use it but it has its limitations. One of those being inspecting large timber structural sections that are heavily restrained by, and possibly acting compositely with, other materials. There’s also simply the case of the logistics of being able to easily access all of the parts that need inspecting, particularly on a structure that carries different types of loadings at different locations and that vary with the movement of the structure. Then if the structure itself takes large loadings it’s very difficult to accurately assess how much rot is too much rot. For serious structural work the reliability and repeatability isn’t that great, but the same could be said of timber as a material  in the first place. Not that I’ve suggested CRT need that level of assurance, I pretty much said the opposite.

 

JP

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7 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

I don’t disagree; I’ve got one and I use it but it has its limitations. One of those being inspecting large timber structural sections that are heavily restrained by, and possibly acting compositely with, other materials. There’s also simply the case of the logistics of being able to easily access all of the parts that need inspecting, particularly on a structure that carries different types of loadings at different locations and that vary with the movement of the structure. Then if the structure itself takes large loadings it’s very difficult to accurately assess how much rot is too much rot. For serious structural work the reliability and repeatability isn’t that great, but the same could be said of timber as a material  in the first place. Not that I’ve suggested CRT need that level of assurance, I pretty much said the opposite.

 

JP

It certainly becomes more difficult when materials are mixed and likely almost impossible to inspect large parts of the structure from an access point of view when in water for example.

 

I'm certainly not suggesting it's a simple or unskilled procedure, well I wouldn't suggest its unskilled because it's a daily part of my HIGHLY skilled job ;) , but useful as part of a routine check to assess accessible areas.

 

Its certainly a useful addition to a simple visual check and a helpful to drive the decision for more invasive methods

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On 11/07/2020 at 07:03, GRLMK38 said:

Watford is now operating 7 days a week and from Monday 13th July the hours will be 08:00-18:00 (last boat 17:15).

 

 

Apologies for any confusion, the opening hours are 10:00 - 18:00 (last boat 17:15).

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  • 3 months later...
On 13/07/2020 at 10:30, GRLMK38 said:

Apologies for any confusion, the opening hours are 10:00 - 18:00 (last boat 17:15).

Just a reminder that Watford Locks are now on Winter hours i.e. 09:00 - 15:30 (last boat entry at 14:45)

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