Severn causing problems to lock repair

Published: Friday, 08 March 2019

THE repair of Gloucester Lock will not be completed in time for the new boating season.

gloucester wallBefore the repairs to the bottom gates into the Severn can be started, the river somehow how to be dammed to give a dry working area, and that is proving problematic, Alan Tilbury reports.

Very expensive

Engineers on site are attempting to find alternatives to building a dam that would be very expensive, with a spokesman for Canal & River Trust telling that having to build a dam across the river would be 'a major civil engineering project'.

It was last December when divers were employed to investigate the extensive leakage from the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal into the river, discovering damage that requires urgent attention, the damage according to the trust being worse than feared

GloucesterLockRepairsLock closed

The lock was then closed to traffic and will remain so until a solution can be found to enable the engineers to work safely on the problem.

Gloucester Lock, as many boaters will be aware, connects the system via the Severn to the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, the only other passage being the tidal Severn and the Bristol Chanel, which is a definite non starter for the majority of boaters!