At last—the Macc reopens
AT LONG last the Macclesfield Canal culvert has been repaired and the navigation reopened.
For nine weeks, since the 24th March, the navigation has been closed at Macclesfield by the failed culvert, Keith Gudgin reports.
Procrastinated
Canal & River Trust procrastinated over how to undertake the repair, seemingly having little concern that the main route between the midlands and northern canals was thus closed to navigation. Part of which time there was no access via the Bridgewater Canal either owing to the long stoppage at Anderton caused by an embankment collapse.
In one notice the trust told that the repair was 'progressing well'!
Yet the trust took only two weeks to repair a similar culvert failure on the Llangollen it being important as it supplied water to Hurleston Reservoir, but the Macclesfield only concerned boats, so seemingly did not have the same importance.
What a difference to the former British Waterways who managed to repair a similar collapsed culvert failure in four days!