Makes a mockery

I DID not realise that there had been eight failures on the waterways in nine months. That certainly makes a mockery of the statement from CaRT that 'they are rare occurrences', writes Ian Gittins.

I expect the statement was put out to stop people worrying, but it really worries me, using the Shropshire Union Canal quite a bit, for am I going to be out somewhere on the waterway and unable to get back to my business because of another failure?

Shelmore Embankment

It was a while ago that the Shelmore Embankment had to be drained at Norbury and I remember another failure that your contributor Richard Swan wrote about on the Shropshire Union that closed the canal.

With it being a fairly straight Telford canal with so many embankments, I should imagine there are scores of culverts, all of course about 200 years old and in those days the mortar that was used would not be of today's strength, so it is more than likely we shall be getting more failures and obviously not only on that canal but as is now happening all over the system.

Not listed?

I see that nowadays there are steps and handrails to get to the culverts; no doubt a feature of health and safety, whose people obviously believe that today's manhood in not capable of scrambling down an embankment.  But I, and I'm sure many other boaters have seen culverts with no steps, so does this mean they are not listed?

I am not quite sure how a culvert actually fails, but it must collapse and then the bed of the canal sink and allow water to drain away.  If this is the case I should imagine that those on big embankments are fairly safe for with such a large amount of soil above, it should have little effect, always providing the culvert water can get through.  With this in mind I should think it is the culverts close to the bed of the canal that are the most dangerous, allowing canal water to drain—those it seems without steps, so are they listed?

One thing is for sure, I'm going to be very particular where I cruise in future.