Maintenance on closed Leeds & Liverpool

Published: Thursday, 12 August 2010

BRITISH Waterways have confirmed that it is taking the opportunity of the closed Leeds & Liverpool Canal to bring forward its scheduled winter work.

This will include the refurbishment and repair of lock gates at Wigan (pictured) and Johnson's Hill and the replacement of lock gates at Greenberfield. Other work will include various lock cill and paddle repairs and carrying out a survey of the canal bed to allow planning future works.

Slight increase

Over the last week or so the reservoirs levels, which are currently running at around 10-12% capacity, have seen a slight increase due to recent rainfall but this has been nowhere near the amount needed to prevent the closure.

The feed from all seven reservoirs has been turned off and a stoppage put in place on a stretch from Lock 30 (Gargrave) to Lock 85 (Wigan). Stop planks have been put in at seven key locations along this stretch which will protect the long pounds—thus offering better protection for the aquatic ecology and prolonging water levels for moored boats.

Relocate businesses

Boat hire customers who operate within the affected stretched have been offered help to relocate their businesses.

Vince Moran, Operations  Director for British Waterways, explained:

"We're hopeful that this is a short term measure and we will be continuing to monitor the reservoir levels on a daily basis. There has been some rainfall in the area, however, this has not been on the scale required. Much more rain is needed to get back to the levels we would normally expect to be at this time of year. We can assure our customers that we will reopen the canal as soon as sufficient water supplies become available."