Kennet and Avon - summit level

[1st ade]

28th Aug 2018 - ufn

Owing to failure of pumps at Wooton Rivers.

Pumps now repaired but no traffic allowed through locks yet - next update 14:00 on 29th.

 

Wish us luck to get back to Gt Bedwyn by Thu night...

[Dave123]

Is it just me or have these pumps been failing on and off all year?

[MtB]

18 hours ago, Dave123 said:

Is it just me or have these pumps been failing on and off all year?

 

There was a sign back up on the board in the car park at Great Bedwyn on Monday saying summit closed UFN due to lack of water supply. No mention of pumps this time. 

[cuthound]

36 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

There was a sign back up on the board in the car park at Great Bedwyn on Monday saying summit closed UFN due to lack of water supply. No mention of pumps this time. 

 

Do many boats "park" in the car park then? Or is thete similar signage at each end if the summit pound for the benefit of boaters ?

[magpie patrick]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

There was a sign back up on the board in the car park at Great Bedwyn on Monday saying summit closed UFN due to lack of water supply. No mention of pumps this time. 

UFN used to mean months if not years, now it means until we've fixed it, which might be hours.

 

If the summit is closed it's usually pumps, a real water shortage would close the canal below Crofton Pump House as well. 

 

Water is pumped to the summit from Wilton Water and from the Avon in Bath. The Wootton Rivers pumps suffer as they are smaller than the others leading up from Bath and whilst there are two, the intention being that one can fail and the supply be maintained, in practice they both need to run all the time to keep the levels up, so if one fails the other can't cope with demand. 

 

These pumps were specified over twenty years ago, so it's no use blaming CRT for the lack of capacity.

[1st ade]

On 05/09/2018 at 12:29, magpie patrick said:

The Wootton Rivers pumps suffer as they are smaller than the others leading up from Bath

I had a quick peek in the control hut at Wooton Rivers as repairs were taking place and was impressed by "160 litres per second" on the flow meter - Magpie P pointed out this was maybe 10% of an open gate paddle. So flat out works so long as for every sixty minutes pumping there are no more than six minutes filling the top lock.