Minworth embankment repair

[alan_fincher]

47 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Yes I don't think he means that sort of tug, I think he means one of those modern tiny things with big engines they attach to the dredging barges. I doubt they draw much.

The most modern type actually have Kubota engines that I suspect are probably rather less powerful than yours is!

[nicknorman]

23 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

Thanks for keeping us updated. If it was silt we could hopefully plough through it but it looked more like rubble from your original photigraoh. 

Not only looked like it, but absolutely felt like it too. With silt, you just slowly drift to a halt. With this we were banging and bouncing around, horrible noises coming from the hull and prop. Definitely rocks/stones on the bottom

10 minutes ago, matty40s said:

You've got no chance, that's like me trying to get Baldock over a fridge below Camp Hill locks.....not going to happen successfully.

I can almost see the next stoppage to empty the pound and clear the debris......the week before the BCN challenge, Tipton Festival and BCN explorer cruises.....

Hopefully not. The saving grace is perhaps that the problem only extends over the length of the repair, 25 metres or whatever. To dig out a channel in that (moving the gunge to the sides) shouldn't take that long with a dredger thingy.

5 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

The most modern type actually have Kubota engines that I suspect are probably rather less powerful than yours is!

I meant big relative to the size of the boat!

[alan_fincher]

27 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Not only looked like it, but absolutely felt like it too. With silt, you just slowly drift to a halt. With this we were banging and bouncing around, horrible noises coming from the hull and prop. Definitely rocks/stones on the bottom

Have you checked for missing "rivets"?

[matty40s]

1 minute ago, alan_fincher said:

Have you checked for missing "rivets"?

luckily Hudsons 'rivets' only go one inch below the waterline usually so shouldn't have been at risk.

[nicknorman]

11 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Have you checked for missing "rivets"?

Hmmm, no "rivets" on the bottom. What a surprise!

 

10 minutes ago, matty40s said:

luckily Hudsons 'rivets' only go one inch below the waterline usually so shouldn't have been at risk.

Err no, they go down nearly to the bottom:

[alan_fincher]

9 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Err no, they go down nearly to the bottom:

Is that so when you manage to ground yourself and keel over and show  a bit of extra "side"  the "illusion" is still maintained? 
 

[nicknorman]

5 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Is that so when you manage to ground yourself and keel over and show  a bit of extra "side"  the "illusion" is still maintained? 
 

Correct. Or even when cruising on the crystal clear waters of the BCN.

[Rob-M]

I've been advised via our CRT coordinator not to try taking Swift through the pound at the moment.

[jake_crew]

21 hours ago, matty40s said:

Most definitely not

Matty - that looks like a push-tug keel.  Which boat ?

Ours is 2' 6" from base plate to knee, with the stern another 12" deeper up the vertical section.

[jake_crew]

16 hours ago, jake_crew said:

Ours is 2' 6" from base plate to knee, with the stern another 12" deeper up the vertical section.

To clarify : 2' 6" from base plate to chine, and at the stern, the chine is 12" below the nominal waterline.

IE total draught 3'6".

[MHS]

We’ve just passed a dredging boat with a mini digger aboard, it’s heading towards Alvecote and Fazeley. Hopefully it’s on it’s way to Minworth. 

[pearley]

2 hours ago, MHS said:

We’ve just passed a dredging boat with a mini digger aboard, it’s heading towards Alvecote and Fazeley. Hopefully it’s on it’s way to Minworth. 

You must be following us, we passed him just before we got to Atherstone bottom lock. 

[MHS]

1 hour ago, pearley said:

You must be following us, we passed him just before we got to Atherstone bottom lock. 

We’ve moored above Atherstone Top Lock. As usual after a dry day it banged it down with rain and hail stones for the last 10 minutes, so we got very wet. Why is it even if you set off 10 minutes earlier than planned this still happens?

[pearley]

2 hours ago, MHS said:

We’ve moored above Atherstone Top Lock. As usual after a dry day it banged it down with rain and hail stones for the last 10 minutes, so we got very wet. Why is it even if you set off 10 minutes earlier than planned this still happens?

We're moored on the pound below the A5. As only one boat has passed us I guess it was you! 

[haggis]

This has just been posted by NABO on FB

UPDATE on MINWORTH POUND BETWEEN NO2 & NO3 LOCKS

We have contacted Ian Lane West Midlands Waterway Manager over the issue of lack of Depth at the pound at Minworth between No2 and No3 Locks.

The original scope of work was to address the bed leaks and wall repairs in the pound between Lock 2 and Lock 3. The bed leaks were to be addressed by exposing the leak holes and overlaying with a Bentomat liner and 300mm of clay. The wall repairs were to remove the failing wall and rebuild off the original foundations. During all these works and whilst the canal was de-watered temporary works would be put in place to support the gas main in the towpath.

Once work started on site, the team were soon hit with problems. On top of the planned works a new larger void had opened up in the bed of the canal and the wall was significantly worse than when inspected the previous year. We also encountered a large amount of silt which made it impossible for our contractors to work around. We also discovered the huge extent of debris present in the channel, old brick wall repairs remnants, dumped objects, large boulders/stones etc.

Given the above, to enable the contractor to work safely we removed around 100 tonnes of silt causing a significant increase in the budget especially as the waste was classed as hazardous. Given this additional cost, on top of the other issues, we only removed what was absolutely necessary. The rest of the silt was redistributed and reprofiled over the clay liner and sides of the canal. With the offside depth of the piles being very shallow we could not have improved this depth as part of the project so by distributing the silt at the side we believed wouldn’t be any worse than before.

The lock landing was untouched and remains the same as before. The centre channel has been maintained at 900mm, although this is what we are currently checking given the experiences and problems people are having and determining if some of the temporary access has been left. Therefore the project team met early last week and came up with the below plan:

Short term plan

A tug boat was on site last Friday to try and redistribute the silt and clear the centre channel.
Whilst we have the tug we will do some dipping and test the depth along the stretch,
We did consider looking to install a weir board to bring up the pound water level as a short term solution but given the current higher water levels and the risk of over topping and causing flooding to the lock side properties and the main A38 we have not progressed this yet.
A suggestion to reinstall poles to keep the boats to the centre channel until such time when we can dredge (lock landing will still be in use) needs to be discussed further.
We will put on a restriction notice just advising deep drafted boats to check the pound is not low and to proceed with care
Dredging plan to clear the silt and debris from this 1km pound at Minworth. We anticipate up to another 500 tonnes needs to come out based on the June 2013 data and what we have just experienced onsite.

We appreciate the issues that this caused boaters and genuinely apologise for that but I hope the above gives some re-assurance that we are looking into it and taking it very seriously. Following the tug efforts last week the project team are meeting again today to review the results and develop a plan to resolve this as quickly as possible. As soon as we have this I have asked for it to be published.

Ian Lane
Waterway Manager
West Midlands Waterway

Jane Marriot CRT is tasked with sorting this out and will keep us updated :

We are working hard to make sure we get debris clearance and dredging in the programme, the problem is the cost as it’s all class as hazardous waste but we will get it programmed in.
I can’t apologies enough for the disruption but we will get there. Happy to issue an update for publication very soon.

Jane

[Dave Payne]

So trying to cut costs in the first place has failed and now they need to spend more money.

 

Clowns.

[Rob-M]

1 hour ago, Dave Payne said:

So trying to cut costs in the first place has failed and now they need to spend more money.

 

Clowns.

I don't think they were trying to cut costs, more like trying to avoid spiriling costs and massive overspend.

[WotEver]

However that report doesn't gel with what Nick reported. Ian Lane is referring to silt whereas @nicknorman was talking about solid objects like bricks and stones below the baseplate.

[Mike Todd]

2 hours ago, Dave Payne said:

So trying to cut costs in the first place has failed and now they need to spend more money.

 

Clowns.

That is grossly unfair and not based on their statement.

[matty40s]

5 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

That is grossly unfair and not based on their statement.

However, they are not checklng contractor works for quality finishes and/or are forcing re-opening times whether the works are ready for rewatering or not.

This is not unfair, this is a factual observation made from several 'completed' works personally witnessed this winter.

[Victor Vectis]

2 hours ago, matty40s said:

However, they are not checklng contractor works for quality finishes and/or are forcing re-opening times whether the works are ready for rewatering or not.

This is not unfair, this is a factual observation made from several 'completed' works personally witnessed this winter.

Sadly, I feel we are going to have to get used to this.

The rebranding exercise is all about attracting non boaters to the water while navigation, doing maintainence properly etc. appear to have become a lower priority.

For example look at Edgbaston Tunnel, 2 way boat working reduced to one way by widening the towpath to the advantage of cyclists. A non boating 'improvement' taking precedence over navigation. Yes, I know it's a very short tunnel and yes, waiting for another boat to pass through will only take a minute or two but, to me, it's the thin end of the wedge.

I don't like to be pessimistic but going by recent evidence (Minworth, Middlewich, this winter's bodged lock repairs) I can see our waterway infrastructure slowly falling apart in the years to come.

ETA In respect to the CaRT staff who are doing their best in trying circumstances perhaps 'rushed' would be a better word than 'bodged' in that last sentence.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Victor Vectis

[Allan(nb Albert)]

So do I believe Ian Lane or Nick Norman?

[WotEver]

1 minute ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

So do I believe Ian Lane or Nick Norman?

Which one has attempted to boat down that stretch?

[Dave Payne]

12 hours ago, Mike Todd said:

That is grossly unfair and not based on their statement.

In your eyes.

[Victor Vectis]

I came through Minworth this morning.

The notices posted say that 'deep draughted boats should check the pound is full' (or words to that effect) and that 'the source of the silt (yes silt!, my emphasis) is being investigated'.

The bywash was running at no 2 lock and also at no 3 when I, eventually, got there.

'Red Wharf' draws about 2'6", or 750mm.

I was all but stuck!

After going backwards and forwards, bumping and grinding my way over the, ahem, silt, I just about got through.

I passed about 3 or 4 hire boats heading towards Brum. Gawd alone knows how they got on or what this makes them think about our waterways.

Rather than investigating the, alleged, silt, I feel CaRT should be hunting down the contractors responsible for this cock up, putting them against a wall and shooting them!

ETA Just after Fazeley Jn I passed 'Collingwood' going the other way. I would guess he was heading back to Gas St. I wonder how he got on?

 

Edited April 10, 2018 by Victor Vectis