Napton Flight reopened

THE Napton Lock Flight on the Oxford Canal has reopened today (Friday) after an emergency four day closure following the collapse of a waterway wall at lock 10.

Yesterday the Canal & River Trust, working with contractors Kier, worked through the night to secure the waterway wall making the lock once again safe for boating. Initial investigations into the collapse point to a by-weir culvert which had been blocked by a large piece of concrete. This created a build-up of water pressure which, ultimately, caused the wall to fall into the canal.

Wall collapsed

Neil Owen, acting waterway manager for the south east at the Canal & River Trust, explained:

"We found out from a boater we had a problem with the waterway wall at lock 10 over the bank holiday weekend but before we had time to act the wall collapsed making the whole area around the lock unstable. For safety reason we temporarily closed the whole lock flight and yesterday we carried out an emergency repair.

"The team have done a great job, working around the clock to get the canal back open in time for the weekend. The plan is to leave this temporary repair in place and come back and fully repair the waterway wall during our winter maintenance season."