Union Canal Breach

[John Foster]

Union Canal Scotland has breached near Polmont after very heavy overnight rain. Water now flooding adjoining Edinburgh to Glasgow railway.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by John Foster

[magpie patrick]

Not good - that cuts most of the canal off from the Falkirk Wheel doesn't it?

[John Foster]

Yes breach is between Polmont and Muiravonside. 

[Alan de Enfield]

49 minutes ago, John Foster said:

Union Canal Scotland has breached near Polmont after very heavy overnight rain. Water now flooding adjoining Edinburgh to Glasgow railway.

 

 

 

 

It doesn't look a very big canal.

[Dave123]

That is going to be a long repair given how useless Scotish waterways are/were with fixing the lift bridges

[haggis]

Stop planks are in (probably have been for a while now) and the level on the canal further east is about a foot down. Iain has loosened Gamebirds ropes to be on the safe side and hopefully no boats were too badly affected by the breach. Flooding in parts of Scotland were pretty bad last night and there have been several landslips. I have never seen lightening like it. There were flashes every few seconds and it went on for hours. 

Haggis

[George and Dragon]

3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

It doesn't look a very big canal.

Scale is everything - those blades of grass are 15' tall

[Up-Side-Down]

8 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

It doesn't look a very big canal.

Oh, it was once before the reeds were left to grow and the silt to substitute for the depth. You'll not get more than 50% of the width available now for boating and it fills up at 25mm per year from field run off being a contour canal made up predominantly of side cuts.

[Iain_S]

20 hours ago, Up-Side-Down said:

Oh, it was once before the reeds were left to grow and the silt to substitute for the depth. You'll not get more than 50% of the width available now for boating and it fills up at 25mm per year from field run off being a contour canal made up predominantly of side cuts.

Agree about the altered size, but it's not really a contour canal. It maintains its level by extensive use of cuttings, embankments and three major aqueducts. It doesn't closely follow the pre-existing contour.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Iain_S

[haggis]

A bit from the BBc web site https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-53768273?fbclid=IwAR2MaAzpESr_1RCDIWLNoqHarmTT0EtVxLy2peJEKL8Xnr-epTS8jsogZ0g

 

Haggis

[magpie patrick]

1 hour ago, haggis said:

A bit from the BBc web site https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-53768273?fbclid=IwAR2MaAzpESr_1RCDIWLNoqHarmTT0EtVxLy2peJEKL8Xnr-epTS8jsogZ0g

 

Haggis

Is that someone's expensive fibre optic cable dropping across the gap?

[haggis]

37 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Is that someone's expensive fibre optic cable dropping across the gap?

Possibly ! I wondered that too and I can't remember if our towpaths were used as cable routes as they were down south

 

Haggis