Marple closed again

ANY boater considering the Marple Flight these days can surely be advised to give it a miss.

It is open and closed yo-yo fashion, with this week it being definitely closed, Keith Gudgin tells us.

Wall moved

With the wall on Lock 11 being pushed back with the help of jacks it was thought there would then be clearance for boats, but it was not to be.

For when the workers returned the following day the wall had moved back slightly, so the lock is closed all this week to see if it is then stable enough to allow 6ft 10in boats to pass through, though there is little chance of 7ft 2in until it is properly repaired.

Rebuilt

It is expected that as with the earlier lock wall failure the wall will have to be rebuilt during the winter.

The problem was that with the flight being closed for such a long time whilst the earlier lock was being repaired, the leaking locks, that are quite deep, meant that they were empty of water and so there was no pressure holding the walls, that have obviously caved in.