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Marple flight closed again(sat pm )


alan rivis

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Marple flight has been closed again lock 11 is settling in and narrowing volunteers say they will be there at 10am to to measure boats and supervise passage tomorrow.

three boats now moored overnight  in pounds between 11 and 12 and 12 and 13

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Those top locks all have the same problem of water escaping into ground and then returning as lock empties .This erodes the ground and preventive maintenance over the years of repointing would have stopped this problem .

 

Edited by b0atman
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Oh boy,, but if Lock 11 is now affected, how? It wasn't even any trouble before apart from that pound between 10 &11  always  being low.

Cruising down tomorrow as I have my two days off dialysis, going to take a butchers at it

Edited by StarUKKiwi
Forgot a line
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1 hour ago, b0atman said:

Those top locks all have the same problem of water escaping into ground and then returning as lock empties .This erodes the ground and preventive maintenance over the years of repointing would have stopped this problem .

 

 Let's nip this in the bud - they all leak, Marple locks have been an issue since they were built, and 220 years ago the committee questioned the wisdom of building such deep locks. The walls are generally not pointed, or at least weren't in the original construction. 

 

It's worrying that this has occurred so soon after a major overhaul of much of the flight (there has been a lot of work other than lock 15) as it suggests the whole flight might give trouble soon, I doubt CRT can afford to rebuild all 16 locks

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I.emailed Simon Bamford and received this

Hi Stella

 

Yes it is unfortunate that, following the reopening of Lock 15 and Marple flight on Friday evening, a boat has got stuck and others have found minimal clearance when using lock 11. Lock 11 been inspected and 3 or 4 of the copings have been found to be bulging into the lock chamber. It is not known why this has happened and unclear as to how it was not noticed and dealt with whilst the flight was closed. We are instructing Kier to mobilise as soon as is possible to jack the copings back to increase the clearance but in the meantime will be manning the lock to assist customers and to check boats and their fenders before entry to avoid any others getting stuck.

 

Regards

 

Simon  

 

Simon Bamford

Asset Improvement Director

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Some boats  have had  trouble at Lock 11 ,over several  years . A bulge in the towpath side wall has been very obvious for a long time. It beggars belief that British Waterways  and  now C&RT  have  either been unaware of it  or  chosen to ignore it, hoping for the best. Still, as of last week we've got a lot of new logo signs on Marple flight, so that's alright then. Ridiculous!

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10 hours ago, billh said:

Some boats  have had  trouble at Lock 11 ,over several  years . A bulge in the towpath side wall has been very obvious for a long time. It beggars belief that British Waterways  and  now C&RT  have  either been unaware of it  or  chosen to ignore it, hoping for the best. Still, as of last week we've got a lot of new logo signs on Marple flight, so that's alright then. Ridiculous!

Well, it got 'missed', I wonder who's paying for equipment coming Tuesday?

Some photos of lock 11 on Marple Flight and report from fellow boater, 
I’m at lock 11. Boats are going through, slowly. CRT volunteers on duty and they are only opening the top ground paddle. Apparently there is a bulge about 2.1m down on the on side. A boat with wider D strakes got stuck and had to go back out yesterday. Another boat got stuck last night but got pulled out by hand when lock level was down. But not before water got into the engine bay. Boat in now. Got a bit stuck but watching to see if it comes out. Scary. But CRT are opening and closing paddles. All smooth at moment. Boat going down slowly. All fine. He’s through. On Tuesday CRT have organised for hydraulic equipment to be brought down to ‘widen’ the lock. Hopefully this can be done and will help.

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1 hour ago, Machpoint005 said:

Perhaps it was something to do with all the nagging along the lines of "when will it be finished?"

 Nagging from CRT to the contractor perhaps? . Far more likely a break down in communication between the region that knew and central engineering who say they didn’t.

  • Greenie 1
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CRT like much of modern management assume nothing deteriorates over time, it has to be broken by someone. If not used it will never break, iron won't rust, wood won't rot, the ground won't subside or get washed away.  They never check anything, contractors do a perfect job every time, so checking is a waste of money.

How often have you seen contractors sitting in their van for a few hours in the morning and evening before their quick job.  The van has a tracker so if on site by 8am until 5pm it is assumed the staff are working. The fact that only half the job is done cannot be true, they did a full 8 hours. 

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55 minutes ago, Detling said:

CRT like much of modern management assume nothing deteriorates over time, it has to be broken by someone. If not used it will never break, iron won't rust, wood won't rot, the ground won't subside or get washed away.  They never check anything, contractors do a perfect job every time, so checking is a waste of money.

How often have you seen contractors sitting in their van for a few hours in the morning and evening before their quick job.  The van has a tracker so if on site by 8am until 5pm it is assumed the staff are working. The fact that only half the job is done cannot be true, they did a full 8 hours. 

well I can assure you that more than one of the Oldbury flight lock gate balance arms(up to Titford Pools) are very rotten and when they break it will be blamed on local vandalism - not the fact that they are rotten and having to move lower gates twice the size of the more normal two gates.

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We did our RYA helmsman round there 7! years ago and I remember our skipper telling us this was going to happen. Currently stuck up there and will hopefully get through next week.

 

There are worse places to be trapped I guess.

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It's sounding more ominous by the day:

Update on 04/06/2018:

 

Following on from problems at Lock 11 over the weekend where we have been operating the lock under a restriction, reluctantly we had to take the decision to close the lock after more extensive problems were found in its operation than had been anticipated.

Our engineers and project managers have been assessing things today, and work is ongoing to realign some of the copings.   We will need to review things when this has been completed to decide whether or not we can reopen the lock or if a more extensive repair is going to be needed.

We know that this will be disappointing for people especially with the wait for the other work that that has happened at Marple.  We believe that this is a new issue on the flight, not something longstanding.  We want to assure everyone that we are doing everything that we can to reopen the lock as quickly as possible.

We expect to provide a further update mid week.

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"Believe" =  management speech for we know but are ignoring these problems even though they are obvious and have been pointed out in the past.

Preventive maintenance no according to our accountants not financially viable.

 

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From CRT website:
 
06/06/2018 @ 16:34

As a short-term measure we have successfully moved back the tow path side copings which were causing some of the pinch-points in the lock and we are currently considering how we can address the  movement which has occurred lower down in the chamber wall.  Our immediate aim is to provide a short-term solution which will provide sufficient clearance to enable all boats with a beam of  up to 6’ 10” to safely navigate through the lock. One option that we are investigating is the possibility of  jacking the walls back to provide more clearance and if this proves a feasible option, we will aim to do this as quickly as possible however, we realise that this will not be satisfactory solution in the long-term and so we are currently also undertaking further analysis and design to enable a more permanent repair to be developed.

Having undertaken further investigations we are now in a position to allow supervised passage through Lock 11 (Permitting specific width requirements). There will be no width restriction for boats up to and including 45ft (13.75m) long, boats that are over 45ft long must have a beam of 6”9 or less should be able to navigate through the lock. The lock will be opened and supervised on a daily basis between 9 - 10 in the morning and 3  – 4 in the afternoon. (Subject to change at short notice)

We fully appreciate this will be disappointing for many of our customers, our teams are working to minimise disruption as much as possible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

From what I can gather the latest on the Marple flight is to commenced a temporary repair on 25 June to enable the flight to be used until the winter stoppage "season" when a permanent repair will be carried out.  The temporary repair may or may not be a success and we'll know either way on 28 June.

 

I'm heading that way with the intent of going through the flight early July.  What I'm keen to avoid is travelling all the way there and then finding I can't get through, but even dragging my feet a bit I'll be north of Great Haywood Junction by the report on 28 June, where I'll go South instead of North if the Peak Forest is off limits.  However, if there's no hope, I may as well alter course now.   So, do I risk continuing heading towards Marple possibly only to have to turn back, or do I pull the plug now?

 

Is anyone in a position to say whether the temporary repair is likely to be a success; its in the balance (as it appears); or if there's very little likelihood of the flight reopening in the near future?  Speculation welcome - I've got to base my plan on something and I'm in the dark!  

Edited by Sea Dog
Autocorrect bolleaux
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