Mon And Brecon Canal Bridges 81-141

A sixteen Mile stratch of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal will be drained over the next month following a recent breach.

The canal embankment collapsed on October 16th, causing tons of mud and thousands of gallons of water to pour onto the A4077 between Crickhowell and gilwern.

Staff at Glaslyn court nursing home considered evacuating its residents as the breach was so close and the area between bridges 105 and 107 was cordened off for the public safety.

BW began a series of inspection of the historic waterway yesterday.

Over the next four weeks the stretch of canal from Llanover to LLangynidir Bridges 84 - 141 will be drained so the bed and the walls of the canal can be inspected.

Julie Sharmen general manager of BW in the Wales and Border counties said "our initial investigation into the cause of the breach at Gilwern indicate that the canal embankment may have been undermined by internal erosion".

Despite having a thorough inspection regime, and extensive geological information a failure of this type was not expected.

In the light of this we have taken the view that the only way that we can give local people absolute confidence in the safety of the waterway and ensure its long term integrity is to carry out a full geotechnical assessment.

From The South Wales Argus.