THE CAUSE OF THE DRAMATIC FAILURE of the canal on the Whitchurch Arm of the Llangollen Canal is being investigated.
Though getting the two boats out of the breach is the first job to be undertaken, Janet Friend reports.
Towards the end of the year
After the cause of the breach has been investigated, work should begin on its repair, though Canal & River trust tell that hopefully it will be reopening this canal later this year—but it will be towards the end of this year.
But repairing the wider damage to the site would be a huge project costing several million pounds we are told.
Julie Sharman, Chief Operating Officer of the Canal & River Trust, tells engineers were still investigating the cause of the catastrophic failure, explaining:
"Earth structures are quite complex, and there's a number of thoughts as to what might be the cause but I'd rather not speculate.
"When you get a water path through an embankment it unravels as it goes and then it gets quite catastrophic as we can see here and the damage is significant."
Badly flooded
It is understood that one of the boats, Sefton, was quite badly flooded as it was the first boat that fell in and it was believed to have its doors open at the time.
However, the other, Ganymede, is hoped to be in good condition with no sign of water breaching the boat.
The third boat, Pacemaker, that had been left teetering over the edge of the collapse, has been winched to safety and engineers are hoping to be able to refloat it this week.