Jump to content

Middlewich Branch breach - Shropshire Union


lostnortherner

Featured Posts

6 hours ago, Boater Sam said:

There is now a free car wash on the main A530 road under the aqueduct adjacent to where the breach was.

 

This is courtesy of the leak in the new embankment.

 

There will be a free skating rink also  as soon as the temperature drops to the normal seasonal average.

 

If it was not so serious and ridiculous it would be a comedy.

We drove under there twice on Monday and didn’t get our free car wash. Is this very recent?

Have you seen this leak yourself, if so please report it asap to CRT. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, MHS said:

We drove under there twice on Monday and didn’t get our free car wash. Is this very recent?

Have you seen this leak yourself, if so please report it asap to CRT. 

The farmer reported the leak in the embankment over 3 years before it breached, would it make any difference?

Leak seen by locals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Boater Sam said:

The farmer reported the leak in the embankment over 3 years before it breached, would it make any difference?

Leak seen by locals.

Well hopefully someone who has seen it, will report it. You haven’t said whether you have seen it, but it cannot harm to inform CRT 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you now or have you ever been an engineer or employee of C&RT?

 That's the sort of lame comment we get from C&RT when this is "not a problem" that is a problem.

 

SORRY, Jam. That was unfair and crass. Its nobody's fault that between them Kier and C&RT seem to be unable to complete a simple civil engineering job without dropping clangers.

It make it all the more remarkable that 250 years ago guys with shovels and wheelbarrows managed to build thousands of miles of canals that have lasted till now.

 

But I know where all the puddling clay is!

Edited by Boater Sam
added more
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Boater Sam said:

Its nobody's fault that between them Kier and C&RT seem to be unable to complete a simple civil engineering job without dropping clangers.

It make it all the more remarkable that 250 years ago guys with shovels and wheelbarrows managed to build thousands of miles of canals that have lasted till now.

My favourite clanger was when they took an age to build a new aquaduct on the Shroppie between Chester and Ellesmere Port. It was opened with suitable pride until the first working boat tried to cross it and found it was too shallow...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

My favourite clanger was when they took an age to build a new aquaduct on the Shroppie between Chester and Ellesmere Port. It was opened with suitable pride until the first working boat tried to cross it and found it was too shallow...

So management sent a dredger?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

From facebook just a few moments ago -
 

 

Allan you posted a comment on TB about an engineers report from 2010 recommending raising the bank with puddle clay etc at a cost of £28000. If that's the case

then the breach really was caused by poor maintenance, not an act of god (do I hear cries of "Parry is our one true God" from believers here?). £2, 972,000 would have fixed a lot of other issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Jim Riley said:

Allan you posted a comment on TB about an engineers report from 2010 recommending raising the bank with puddle clay etc at a cost of £28000. If that's the case

then the breach really was caused by poor maintenance, not an act of god (do I hear cries of "Parry is our one true God" from believers here?). £2, 972,000 would have fixed a lot of other issues.

The last principal inspection of was carried out 2010. It recommended raising the existing concrete wash wall at a cost of £13,000 and raising the crest infilling with puddle clay at a cost of £28,000. It was recommended that the work was carried out in the medium term  - 1-5 years.

 

The reason for the for these recommendations was low freeboard (8") due to historic settlement rather than any recent event.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

The last principal inspection of was carried out 2010. It recommended raising the existing concrete wash wall at a cost of £13,000 and raising the crest infilling with puddle clay at a cost of £28,000. It was recommended that the work was carried out in the medium term  - 1-5 years.

 

The reason for the for these recommendations was low freeboard (8") due to historic settlement rather than any recent event.

 

 

In which case, surely, the view that leaving gates/paddles open at the lock above could not have been the cause does not have has much strength? If the cause was a more substantial failure of the embankment at the breach position then simply increasing the freeboard would only have hastened the collapse as it would have increased the load?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Mike Todd said:

In which case, surely, the view that leaving gates/paddles open at the lock above could not have been the cause does not have has much strength? If the cause was a more substantial failure of the embankment at the breach position then simply increasing the freeboard would only have hastened the collapse as it would have increased the load?

If its true that paddles were left open then the bywashes or overgate wash should have coped with the excess, however if the bank hadn't been raised as recommended then it wouldn't have collapsed but washed away. Its easy to blame "the paddles" rather than to admit a maintenance reccomendation was ignored. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Jim Riley said:

If its true that paddles were left open then the bywashes or overgate wash should have coped with the excess, however if the bank hadn't been raised as recommended then it wouldn't have collapsed but washed away. Its easy to blame "the paddles" rather than to admit a maintenance reccomendation was ignored. 

My point really was that 'you cannot have your cake and eat it' ie you should not use one argument to support the contrary!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Mike Todd said:

My point really was that 'you cannot have your cake and eat it' ie you should not use one argument to support the contrary!

Where have I? My proposition is consistent. Pound level rose, over topped the low bit, washed a big breach. 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jim Riley said:

Where have I? My proposition is consistent. Pound level rose, over topped the low bit, washed a big breach. 

Simon Bamford, Asset Improvement Director told C&RT's board of trustees in September that the breech was due to overtopping. Thus Jim is correct.

 

However, Richard  Parry told the board it was due to vandalism at the same meeting ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Allan(nb Albert) said:

Simon Bamford, Asset Improvement Director told C&RT's board of trustees in September that the breech was due to overtopping. Thus Jim is correct.

 

However, Richard  Parry told the board it was due to vandalism at the same meeting ...

But did the vandalism cause the overtopping.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

But did the vandalism cause the overtopping.

 

... or did lack of freeboard cause the overtopping?
... or low washwall?
... or the sandy soil?
... or was a blocked weir to blame?
... or the opposite bank collapsing due to badger activity?

I am certain that several factors would have been involved.

C&RT have twice refused to provide a post breach report that might shed some light claiming they are exempt from disclosure because they are incomplete.

Edited to add -

The reason C&RT are blaming vandalism is because of a Key Performance Indicator which records "lost days due to unplanned navigation closure".  Recording "lost days" due to the Middlewich breach would mean that C&RT would fail this years target. Blaming the breach on vandalism means that it is outside C&RT's control and therefore does not count towards the target of less than 450 "lost days" in 2018/19. 

Last financial year C&RT considered more than 80% of "lost days" to be outside its control (490 vs 2482).

 

Edited by Allan(nb Albert)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They have informed me this morning that they are assessing the situation and that it is due to a dry canal bed.

This is patently rubbish, the canal bed was kept wet throughout the works, the puddling clay was removed from site. Perhaps C&RT have reinvented canal building without puddling clay.

When the temperature drops later this month, the A530 will be closed due to ice on the carriageway and icicles hanging from the bridge.

C&RT are pinning their hopes on the leak repairing itself, like they did in 2010 and when it was reported again as worsening in 2014.

This time when it washes the aqueduct away, will it be vandalism or badgers? Will we have a canal? Can they afford to rebuild the aqueduct and pay the local authority for the road and the house owner below for the loss of his house?

Edited by Boater Sam
added more
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, frangar said:

It’s on the local news website....let’s hope they and their contractors are a bit more proactive.....

 

https://www.winsfordguardian.co.uk/news/17340868.canal-and-river-trust-confirm-middlewich-aqueduct-leak/

Got that report, seems they have invented a self healing leak, hopefully.  Lots of cinders in the canal? I have told them that I know where the clay went and it could be brought back.

They may get away with it, the local weather forecast is that it will remain mild for 10 days. 

I would warn any early morning drivers down the A530 that if it gets cold, the road will be treacherous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Sadly I have to report that the canal is still leaking out of the aqueduct onto the A530 road at Middlewich despite the £3.2M spend

 

I have been asking CRT what they are doing about it as there is a waterfall onto vehicles passing under the aqueduct, the brickwork is saturated and leaking.

The first answer was that they were monitoring the leak and that it would cease after the canal bed had been wet for a while countering the drying out during the works.

This has not been the case.

Asked what was going to happen when the weather turned colder and the water turned to icicles hanging from the bridge and the road was a sheet of ice, the reply was that the local authority were to increase the amount of grit spread on the road.

Luckily the weather in the area is still mild but with night frost.

A request for an update earlier this week has not even been acknowledged never mind answered. This is in breach  of CRT's code of conduct.

Does there have to be a serious accident on the road before action is taken?

Will the leak again be ignored until the canal breaches again?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Sadly I have to report that the canal is still leaking out of the aqueduct onto the A530 road at Middlewich despite the £3.2M spend

 

I have been asking CRT what they are doing about it as there is a waterfall onto vehicles passing under the aqueduct, the brickwork is saturated and leaking.

The first answer was that they were monitoring the leak and that it would cease after the canal bed had been wet for a while countering the drying out during the works.

This has not been the case.

Asked what was going to happen when the weather turned colder and the water turned to icicles hanging from the bridge and the road was a sheet of ice, the reply was that the local authority were to increase the amount of grit spread on the road.

Luckily the weather in the area is still mild but with night frost.

A request for an update earlier this week has not even been acknowledged never mind answered. This is in breach  of CRT's code of conduct.

Does there have to be a serious accident on the road before action is taken?

Will the leak again be ignored until the canal breaches again?

  • Greenie 1
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.