Bridgewater Canal Breach

[David Mack]

6 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

or at least the locals are able,to kick peels arse for not reacting faster

To be fair, @Liam did point out in the first post in this thread that the Canal Company staff were already on site putting stop planks in.

[tree monkey]

6 minutes ago, David Mack said:

To be fair, @Liam did point out in the first post in this thread that the Canal Company staff were already on site putting stop planks in.

Ahhh, failed to spot that

[frangar]

To be fair to CRT I think they would have arranged some of the temporary scaffold/tarp coffer dams either side of the breach by now….I do wonder how many staff/contractor contacts Peel has when something like this happens. 

[MtB]

It had not crossed my mind until this thread that stop planks might not work. 

 

The first plank in drops (or gets pushed down) to the bottom of the canal but being straight, it won't match the profile of the silt-covered canal bed, so water continues to flow underneath the stack of stop planks. 

 

 

[David Mack]

8 minutes ago, MtB said:

The first plank in drops (or gets pushed down) to the bottom of the canal but being straight, it won't match the profile of the silt-covered canal bed, so water continues to flow underneath the stack of stop planks. 

But the resulting flow then washes the silt out, but perhaps not any bricks or other larger objects.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, David Mack said:

But the resulting flow then washes the silt out, but perhaps not any bricks or other larger objects.

 

So after a while, the planks drop down a bit more and begin to seal?

 

 

[David Mack]

10 minutes ago, frangar said:

To be fair to CRT I think they would have arranged some of the temporary scaffold/tarp coffer dams either side of the breach by now….I do wonder how many staff/contractor contacts Peel has when something like this happens. 

But CRT has a much larger network, and therefore more experience of breaches and other stoppages, and hence more arrangements in place to deal with them. I suspect Peel would do well to ask CRT for advice on this. 

The breach having happened on a bank holiday won't have helped. I suspect more staff (ground based, office staff to authorise work and contractors to augment staff) would be available on a normal weekday.

1 minute ago, MtB said:

 

So after a while, the planks drop down a bit more and begin to seal?

Yes, but the pressure difference between the wet and dry sides of the planks will lead to friction between the planks and the slots, so some pressure will be needed to push the planks down.

[tree monkey]

4 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

So after a while, the planks drop down a bit more and begin to seal?

 

 

As I understand it, the process depends on the planks swelling and the original flow filling the gaps with silt/clay, it's certainly not an immediate fix.

 

Obviously chucking down a sheet of polythene is a more modern adaptation 

Edited January 1, 2025 by tree monkey

[frangar]

1 minute ago, David Mack said:

But CRT has a much larger network, and therefore more experience of breaches and other stoppages, and hence more arrangements in place to deal with them. I suspect Peel would do well to ask CRT for advice on this. 

The breach having happened on a bank holiday won't have helped. I suspect more staff (ground based, office staff to authorise work and contractors to augment staff) would be available on a normal weekday.

That was sort of my point. I don’t think Peel have the infrastructure in place for this sort of event despite having the Bridgewater and the MSC on their books. 
 

You need staff and contractors to be able to react 24/7….and that costs money. 

[PeterF]

And a lot of the bridges on the Bridgewater are very wide, maybe 20ft, 2 narrowboats can easily pass in them. I do not know if the bridges with stop planks are narrower or not.

[MtB]

9 minutes ago, PeterF said:

And a lot of the bridges on the Bridgewater are very wide, maybe 20ft, 2 narrowboats can easily pass in them. I do not know if the bridges with stop planks are narrower or not.

I'd have thought a dozen or two bags of scalpings dropped off the bridge (still in the bags) would do a reasonable job of stemming the flow.

 

 

[Jim P]

Out of interest, I wonder if embanked canals come under the reservoirs act. If you forget the function of it, it is a long thin reservoir, and this was some some form of dam breach.

[David Mack]

Made it onto the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ce90729r30po

 

[JordanHR]

Does anyone know what the levels are like in Sale? My residential boat is moored there currently and I’m away for a few days and worrying! 
 

Any info greatly appreciated. 

[dmr]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

It had not crossed my mind until this thread that stop planks might not work. 

 

The first plank in drops (or gets pushed down) to the bottom of the canal but being straight, it won't match the profile of the silt-covered canal bed, so water continues to flow underneath the stack of stop planks. 

 

 

 

Its quite common (at least on the Rochdale) to leave the bottom plank in place so the silt sits around it but the top of the plank is exposed ready to take the next plank, but because the Rochdale is wide CRT often prefer to use a coffer dam.

[Elf]

5 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Well yes, that is why everyone is going on about a culvert. The brook passes under the embankment, presumably. The flooding on the east caused a massive flow through the culvert which disintegrated and the embankment got washed away from underneath, at a guess.

 

 

 

Non canal man here. I am familiar with the area and eventually I found a current map with the stream showing on east side of breach, the oldest OS I could find (1840s) just labels a "hedge"there--but the hedge does appear to follow that stream. I can`t source a detailed map PRE canal (late 1700s). No doubt again the legal profession will be the winners in this mishap.

Nice to find your site and see the drone footage ahead of the MSM.

I best ack. the OS map copy I suppose even though "open"

[Elf]

I found the culvert

[magpie patrick]

9 hours ago, MtB said:

It had not crossed my mind until this thread that stop planks might not work. 

 

The first plank in drops (or gets pushed down) to the bottom of the canal but being straight, it won't match the profile of the silt-covered canal bed, so water continues to flow underneath the stack of stop planks. 

 

 

 

This is the reason that there is a stop gate at the end of the CRT section of the Ashby, rather than stop planks. It only protects CRT, but as they have about 30 miles of level canal to protect and the canal society about half a mile this is probably fair enough. 

[magnetman]

Presumably stop gates must be subject to maintenance or the cills would foul up with random debris and the gates would not close properly. 

 

Regular cleaning with a spud or keb would be sensible but does it get done? Do the gates get opened and closed regularly? 

 

I haven't been on the Ashby since the 90s. I thought it was originally a stop lock. 

 

scrub that...

Other end ! 

Edited January 2, 2025 by magnetman

[Robert_Scoble]

More video here

 

[Alan de Enfield]

 

 

The Bridgewater Canal last breached in 1971 — 53 years ago. Damage was also caused to The Bridgewater Canal in Cheshire due to the severe flooding, which has overflowed into the Little Bollington area. Cheshire Police are dealing with the canal breach and alongside Manchester Police, they have been working to evacuate nearby properties. The M56 westbound near Manchester Airport has been closed since the early hoursdue to a flooded carriageway. And the submerged A555 airport relief road is shut. Chief Superintendent Colette Rose of Greater Manchester Police said: 'Following events overnight a major incident has been declared. This is to ensure we can continue to keep people safe through a co-ordinated effort from our collective emergency services, supported by key partner agencies.'

 

[Liam]

11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

The Bridgewater Canal last breached in 1971 — 53 years ago. 

 

 

A lot of people either don't know or forget that the last breach wasn't in around 2005, when sluice number 5 failed catastrophically in Castlefield. The water level dropped a couple of feet before stop planks were placed in at Sale at one end, and the Barton aqueduct swung at the other to try and retain water, until several bulk bags of sand were dropped in front of the failed sluice to block it up. It took the level around 10 days to get anything like back to normal.

[junior]

15 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

The Bridgewater Canal last breached in 1971 — 53 years ago. Damage was also caused to The Bridgewater Canal in Cheshire due to the severe flooding, which has overflowed into the Little Bollington area. Cheshire Police are dealing with the canal breach and alongside Manchester Police, they have been working to evacuate nearby properties. The M56 westbound near Manchester Airport has been closed since the early hoursdue to a flooded carriageway. And the submerged A555 airport relief road is shut. Chief Superintendent Colette Rose of Greater Manchester Police said: 'Following events overnight a major incident has been declared. This is to ensure we can continue to keep people safe through a co-ordinated effort from our collective emergency services, supported by key partner agencies.'

 

Just to be clear, the Major Incident has been declared by Greater Manchester Police in relation to flooding in Manchester and Stockport areas. The breach on the Bridgewater falls in the Cheshire Police Force area, albeit only just as Dunham Massey itself is GMP. 

In police/emergency services and local authority terms, this breach does not constitute a major incident.

[Jon57]

 

[Pluto]

22 minutes ago, Liam said:

 

A lot of people either don't know or forget that the last breach wasn't in around 2005, when sluice number 5 failed catastrophically in Castlefield. The water level dropped a couple of feet before stop planks were placed in at Sale at one end, and the Barton aqueduct swung at the other to try and retain water, until several bulk bags of sand were dropped in front of the failed sluice to block it up. It took the level around 10 days to get anything like back to normal.

I seem to recall that one of the problems with the 1971 breach was that Barton Aqueduct was open for the ship canal, and that it took a long time for the levels either side to equalise so that Bridgewater Canal traffic could pass. The Rochdale and Ashton were not open, so water supplies to the canal in Manchester were limited. Similar problems resulted at the single gate at Dutton.

 

On stop planks, for a breach like this several sets would normally be used at narrows along the canal before a good seal could be made. Once the flow of water was controlled/stopped, the set nearest the breach can be set properly and the length from there to the first successful stop could be filled. When the Bridgewater first opened, there was much  interest in Brindley's automatic stop gates which lay on the canal bed until raised by the flow of water caused by a breach. Unfortunately, in use they became silted over and inoperable. The L&LC style of normal lock gates without balance beams fitted in bridgeholes either side of embankments were more successful.

 

I seem to recall that there were problems with the flow of water in the Bollin right from the start, and the layout of the river was adapted to improve matters. Unfortunately I am about to move, so my library is inaccessible. Any culvert built under a canal during its construction will remain the responsibility of the canal company unless they have been asked to allow improvements by another party. The 1971 breach is seen below in a photo by Roger Lorenz.