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Slough Basin Redevelopment


nbfiresprite

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12 hours ago, ivan&alice said:

You're right though there really isn't an obvious way. For fun I tried to plan out how it would be possible.

 

I don't think you're a million miles off there, but I'd continue down through Chalvey (straight on at the point your route takes a 90 degree westwards), through the edge of the SEC's carpark (and the wide footpath/cycle path running next to it), down the back of the council recycling centre and share the existing railway underpass of the M4 - there's tons of space there to put a canal in without digging up the road even if they did decide to re-double the railway in future.

 

Alternatively I wonder wether a route further to the east (by the Chestnuts PH Langley to just east of Datchet) may be more viable - although this does cut out Slough and the new basin.

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46 minutes ago, buccaneer66 said:

Unless Chalvey has improved a lot in recent years I wouldn't go through there.

I was thinking more of bulldozing it as much as possible to make room for a canal. However if someone wanted to flood the whole place to make it a giant marina I certainly wouldn't object.

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20 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Burnham beeches is just outside Slough, that alone makes visiting the place worth it

Carshalton Beeches....  one come down recently. Been adding a few boughs to the stockpile. Beech is a very heavy wood!

Edited by mark99
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2 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Not quite the same, with all due respect to carshalton  :)

We can dream. I know Burnham B well. Used to pick mushrooms there and walk our dogs.

Edited by mark99
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2 hours ago, phantom_iv said:

However if someone wanted to flood the whole place to make it a giant marina I certainly wouldn't object.

Good plan

1 hour ago, mark99 said:

We can dream. I know Burnham B well. Used to pick mushrooms there and walk our dogs.

Nice pub there as well

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4 hours ago, phantom_iv said:

 

I don't think you're a million miles off there, but I'd continue down through Chalvey (straight on at the point your route takes a 90 degree westwards), through the edge of the SEC's carpark (and the wide footpath/cycle path running next to it), down the back of the council recycling centre and share the existing railway underpass of the M4 - there's tons of space there to put a canal in without digging up the road even if they did decide to re-double the railway in future.

 

Alternatively I wonder wether a route further to the east (by the Chestnuts PH Langley to just east of Datchet) may be more viable - although this does cut out Slough and the new basin.

How do you get under the main west-east railway line?

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3 hours ago, Mike Todd said:

How do you get under the main west-east railway line?

With a bridge, on the Windsor branch when they needed to bridge the flood relief channel, they built the bridge alongside and in one weekend they took up the tracks and formation and jacked the new bridge into place sideways.

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On 10/11/2020 at 12:09, ivan&alice said:

Last year I went to the bottom of the Slough arm and filled up with water from a tap that I had to partially repair. I quite liked the atmosphere, it was gritty! Still, great news that they are developing it, I wonder if they have kept in mind a future possibility to link to the Thames or if this development makes it impossible?

I wonder if they have kept in mind a future possibility to link to the Thames or if this development makes it impossible?

 

Good point!

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I am quite sure that CART can rapidly turn it into another Aylesbury Basin.  I expect they will create expensive permanent moorings, full of wide beams and handy for a train to London but with neither parking nor security.

There will probably  be a token 48 hour mooring or two,  but I bet there are no new facilities to support the extra boats.

N

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On 10/11/2020 at 12:09, ivan&alice said:

Last year I went to the bottom of the Slough arm and filled up with water from a tap that I had to partially repair. I quite liked the atmosphere, it was gritty! Still, great news that they are developing it, I wonder if they have kept in mind a future possibility to link to the Thames or if this development makes it impossible?

It's interesting how "Slough Basin Redevelopment" actually means redevelopment of the land around the basin, which won't assist the canal basin, its purpose or attraction in any way.

 

Forget any future possibilities of linking to the Thames. I'm sure the governors of Eton have enough clout in any if not all the necessary government and local authorities to enforce their original objection 140 years ago.  They didn't want it anywhere near the playing fields of Eton then, and ever since have bought key parcels of land to scupper any rerouting.

Only my personal, warped and suspicious mind yet I do wonder how far into this proposed building one would have to dig to discover some sort of backing or support from that direction?

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1 hour ago, BEngo said:

I am quite sure that CART can rapidly turn it into another Aylesbury Basin.  I expect they will create expensive permanent moorings, full of wide beams and handy for a train to London but with neither parking nor security.

There will probably  be a token 48 hour mooring or two,  but I bet there are no new facilities to support the extra boats.

N

The moorings at the end of the arm(next to Waitrose, still have no connected electricity points or other facilities, even though the pipes and cables are there. ....so yes, end of Sluff Arm will probably end up the same.

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On 10/11/2020 at 14:18, Col_T said:

Speaking as someone who has 'enjoyed' seeing the western K&A transformed into a continuous moorers car-park, coaxing London boaters to spread out onto the arm has to be the best reason ever not to link Slough directly to the Thames!

I'd rather see boats moored the whole way along the towpath of the Slough arm than the deserted crime hotspot and derelict mess it currently is. It would encourage locals (of the nice sort) to visit it more too. Most people walk along canals to look at boats not reeds and silt.

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20 hours ago, buccaneer66 said:

With a bridge, on the Windsor branch when they needed to bridge the flood relief channel, they built the bridge alongside and in one weekend they took up the tracks and formation and jacked the new bridge into place sideways.

Prohibitively expensive?

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On 10/11/2020 at 22:26, ivan&alice said:

From the linked 2012 article:

 

It suggested the waterway would either go through London Road or the A4 and the M4 motorway, before joining the river at Romney Lock, Eton.

Mr Timms said: "It would be a major asset to the waterway system of Slough. It all seems a bit improbable, but there is a lot of money being spent on building waterways in the UK.

"It's only one-and-a-half miles long - the problem is the route goes through a built-up area."


And @fender in an old thread on the Slough arm suggested the link could join the arm further east:
 

There are many watercourses, the Crane, the Colne, Longford (CCL) etc which may offer some potential with being incorporated into a canal scheme that will allow boaters to enter the Thames nearer Staines/Windsor

 

You're right though there really isn't an obvious way. For fun I tried to plan out how it would be possible.

 

I think it can be done demolishing 6 private houses, 4 larger businesses, 7 road bridges, 2 motorway bridges and a railway bridge. Most of the rest of it goes through parks and recreation grounds. It ends up on the Jubilee river which would have to be made navigable for the last mile and a half.

 

I'd love to know what route thought could be done for 30 million!

 

SloughBasinToJubileeRiver.jpg.36e37c332b12f16b12f70ac89806a8f7.jpg

Thanks for this and yes what you said is pretty much what was in my mind.

A route to Staines following the Colne Brook was the only feasible one that I could imagine but is quite a long way and would still involve some major engineering works.

 

Keith

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On 11/11/2020 at 21:51, BEngo said:

I am quite sure that CART can rapidly turn it into another Aylesbury Basin.  I expect they will create expensive permanent moorings, full of wide beams and handy for a train to London but with neither parking nor security.

There will probably  be a token 48 hour mooring or two,  but I bet there are no new facilities to support the extra boats.

N

And cut the expensively installed mooring rings off too!

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On 11/11/2020 at 19:12, buccaneer66 said:

With a bridge, on the Windsor branch when they needed to bridge the flood relief channel, they built the bridge alongside and in one weekend they took up the tracks and formation and jacked the new bridge into place sideways.

Doesn’t always go to plan:

 

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/11/04/heavy-bridge-slide-stalls-as-transporters-sink-into-mud/

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