Mon & Brec closed until March

THE collapsed embankment on the Mon & Brec Canal has been found to be a major problem, and as such the waterway will be closed until the middle of April at the earliest Canal & River Trust first told, but now it states it will be late March.

It was during January after heavy rain that movement was detected on the embankment at Llanfoist, between Bridges 93 and 97 near Abergavenny, (Mon & Brec closed again) and the waterway subsequently closed, Keith Gudgin tells us.

Remain closed

The investigations soon confirmed that it would be necessary for the canal to remain closed until repair works have been undertaken, that was started on Monday 27th January, with a planned completion date of 10th March 2014.

Once the canal was dewatered it was discovered that the movement was worse than first thought, with much more work involved, and so the completion date was given later as April, but now brought forward to late March.

Prone to problems

The Mon & Brec is prone to embankment movements and breaches, believed to be caused by the soil that was used in its construction.  It was the cost of one breach on the waterway that caused the then British Waterways to pull out of the Cotswold Canals restoration project, that many thought the wrong decision.