Slowly does it on the breach

IT SEEMS to be a matter of 'slowly does it' on the breach on the Aire & Calder Navigation.

Though it was over two months ago, the 20th December, when the waterway breached it is only yesterday that Canal & River Trust tell that the site has 'been dewatered to provide access for inspection and investigation works to be carried out and to allow repairs to commence'.

Work to begin

Yet we were told back on the 6th January that 'our project team met on Monday 4 January to begin work to repair the breach', Keith Gudgin reports.

The breach on the Aire & Calder Main Line at New Bridge has closed the commercial route from Hull Docks, that carried the few remaining loads of freight on the inland waterways after CaRT disbanded its commercial activity.

Long term leakage

It was Tony Dunkley who summed-up the reason for the breach very well:

"The breach on the Aire & Calder, wasn't the result of heavy rain raising the water level in the canal. It is simply another instance of long term leakage being ignored until the ground becomes sodden and unstable enough to slip and wash out."

With over two months already passed, there can be no knowing when the breach will eventually be repaired at these current time scales.