Jump to content

River Soar - Zouch Cut from 12th March


Richard T

Featured Posts

Just received notice of a new stoppage on the Soar as follows:-

Notice Alert

River Soar
Starts At: Lock 55 - Zouch Lock
Ends At: Zouch Flood Gates

Monday 12 March 2018 08:00 until Friday 16 March 2018 17:00

Type: Navigation Closure
Reason: Maintenance


 

Original message:

 

There is a serious leak from the navigation just upstream of Zouch Lock which requires urgent attention.

In order to carry out repairs we need to dewater the section of navigation between Zouch Lock and the flood gates, which are about ½ mile upstream.  We will achieve this by closing the flood gates and draining the navigation through the lock, allowing our team to carry out repairs to the canal wall.

The works will commence on Monday 12th March at 8:00am and we aim to be completed by Friday 16rd March at 5:00pm.

You can view this notice and its map online here:
https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/12437/between-zouch-lock-and-the-zouch-flood-gates-

 

I reported that the wall was collapsing just before the lock last week - this may be where the leak is alternatively it could be the other side into to field. There have been leaks in this area before.

Edited by NB Lola
Date change
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update to this stoppage dates have changed to 12th to 16th March which nicely scuppers our plans for that weekend although with the snow I suspect that the river will be in flood by then!!

 


 

Update on 01/03/2018:

 

We apologise for the change in dates, please see update below.

There is a serious leak from the navigation just upstream of Zouch Lock which requires urgent attention.

In order to carry out repairs we need to dewater the section of navigation between Zouch Lock and the flood gates, which are about ½ mile upstream.  We will achieve this by closing the flood gates and draining the navigation through the lock, allowing our team to carry out repairs to the canal wall.

The works will commence on Monday 12th March at 8:00am and we aim to be completed by Friday 16th March at 5:00pm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The repairs to the cut are almost complete - CRT are waiting for the mortar to go off before refilling. They have repointed a length of about 20m just above and below the water level where they believe the leak was from. They have also rebuilt a short section where the wall had collapsed.

The river level was very high - there was only a difference of about 3inches between the level in the cut and that below. All paddles were open.

IMG_6948.JPG

Repointed cut wall

IMG_6947.JPG

Repair to the collapsed wall

IMG_6945.JPG

Top gates of the lock - the water level in the lock is the same as that below it.

IMG_6944.JPG

Below the lock -water level  is normally at least a metre below this

IMG_6941.JPG

View from the footbridge towards the lock. The main area of repair is where the plastic netting is.

All being well the cut will open as planned on Friday but the floor gates will stay shut until  the river levels have gone down.

Edited by Richard T
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to the CRT user group meeting for the East Midlands last night. CRT said that the works have not solved the problem of the leak. They think that the water must getting out below the base of the wall. So expect another stoppage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The silly thing is, me and you could probably walk down Zoch cut for an hour and identify the leak without experts or £50p hour contractors wearing hi vis. 

Would we be taken seriously,  no,, just as I dont' take seriously that bean bag repair of the cut wall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, matty40s said:

The silly thing is, me and you could probably walk down Zoch cut for an hour and identify the leak without experts or £50p hour contractors wearing hi vis. 

Would we be taken seriously,  no,, just as I dont' take seriously that bean bag repair of the cut wall.

On several occasions I have reported leaks to CRT, where the water could be seen running out of the side of an embankment, but they have taken no notice and I know of one which I have reported 3 years in a row and still nothing has been done so I've given up bothering to report them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, matty40s said:

.... just as I dont' take seriously that bean bag repair of the cut wall.

As a civil engineer I find that repair offensive.

Surely CRT employ folk who can look at obscenities like these, condemn them and insist on a proper repair.

The original stones are sat in front of the breach for godsakes! Wouldn't it have actually been easier to reuse them instead of those horrible concrete bags?

I truly despair sometimes.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Keeping Up said:

On several occasions I have reported leaks to CRT, where the water could be seen running out of the side of an embankment, but they have taken no notice and I know of one which I have reported 3 years in a row and still nothing has been done so I've given up bothering to report them.

The water running from the side of Barton lock is a classic example.  It was running for 18 months before they closed it all off to stop the leak and repair it. Months later it was still the same and still is now.

Edited by matty40s
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, carlt said:

As a civil engineer I find that repair offensive.

Surely CRT employ folk who can look at obscenities like these, condemn them and insist on a proper repair.

The original stones are sat in front of the breach for godsakes! Wouldn't it have actually been easier to reuse them instead of those horrible concrete bags?

I truly despair sometimes.

 

To be fair to CRT the cut was not leaking in the sand bagged area. This repair was to support the coping. CRT also could not completely dewater the cut because of the high river level and they had no boats available to help with the repair - they were at Junction Lock. The leak was in the area of the wall which was repointed around the water level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, Richard T said:

To be fair to CRT the cut was not leaking in the sand bagged area. This repair was to support the coping. CRT also could not completely dewater the cut because of the high river level and they had no boats available to help with the repair - they were at Junction Lock. The leak was in the area of the wall which was repointed around the water level.

To be fair that is not a repair....It is a complete bodge .

It is undoubtedly undermining the surrounding stonework so you will see stones falling in around it  leading to even more obscene cement bag bodges.

If you can chuck cement bags into the gap then you can lift the stones out of the cut and reset them correctly.

No excuses...it is a terrible job that should have been condemned and reinstated at the contractors expense. 

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Richard T said:

To be fair to CRT the cut was not leaking in the sand bagged area. This repair was to support the coping. CRT also could not completely dewater the cut because of the high river level and they had no boats available to help with the repair - they were at Junction Lock. The leak was in the area of the wall which was repointed around the water level.

It's a bodge Richard,  as Carl says, and they will no doubt be happy to leave it as it is until it does a Middlewich type collapse.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 22/3/2018 at 00:23, carlt said:

As a civil engineer I find that repair offensive.

Surely CRT employ folk who can look at obscenities like these, condemn them and insist on a proper repair.

The original stones are sat in front of the breach for godsakes! Wouldn't it have actually been easier to reuse them instead of those horrible concrete bags?

I truly despair sometimes.

 

I am not a civil engineer, but to me that repair looks horrendous. It looks like they have employed a couple of halfwits who have just chucked in a load of bags.Why not just repair it properly, surely then it will last a lot longer as well as looking decent.

I despair also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

I will just say, 'Proactive V Reactive'.

Even reactive jobs can be done properly. 

The cement bags may have shored up the coping but they are harder to remove than lay so an ugly temporary bodge becomes a permanent eyesore undermining the surrounding stonework. 

It would be far easier and cheaper to recover and reinstate the original stones than remove the cement bags (and then recover and reinstate the original stones). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree, can't see any reason not to. My comment was in response to another comment stating that CRT will botch this up and wait for an incident like the recent breach. Maintenance and preventative repairs avoid major occurrences. Probably saving money in the long term.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.