Trent & Mersey remains closed

THE Trent & Mersey Canal remains closed at Northwich due to a collapsed culvert.

It was over a week ago when the culvert collapsed, closing both the waterway and towpath between bridges 184 and 185, with the site having to be drained for an inspection, Keith Gudgin reported.

Damage to timber box

The inspection has now been carried out that has revealed 'damage to the timber box culvert resulting in leakage from the canal bed'.

As yet no solution has been agreed for its repair, only that a further meeting will take place tomorrow, Friday, 'with the relevant organisations to discuss the proposed design'.

But any decision taken at the meeting will not be made public until next Wednesday, so there is no intimation as to when there is a possibility of a repair and the canal reopened.

Little or no inspection

Boater Cyril Watkins tells us that 'looking down into the hole all I could see was rotten timber', which perhaps points to there having been little or no inspection of the culvert.