OnSite News
Carry On Cruising! Rapid response gets Llangollen Canal moving again
David Wedgbury, OnSite's Portadam Manager, received a call from Wynn Evans of British Waterways at around 08:45 on Monday 27th July informing him of a breach in the Llangollen Canal in Grindley Brook, near Whitchurch in Shropshire.
The breach had resulted in the complete de-watering of a canal pound situated in a series of locks at one of the busiest stretches of this popular narrow boat holiday waterway…and at the peak of the season.
Not only is the Llangollen Canal one of the UK's busiest waterways but is also a key water feed.
David immediately started the ball rolling by bringing together a Portadam installation team who quickly loaded a Portadam system into three vans and headed off for Whitchurch.
On arrival at the breach site at around noon, the installation team immediately went to work undertaking a canal bed survey to ascertain the best location for the Portadam.
The job was made all the more difficult because the only access to the site for men and equipment was via a private cottage garden and through an ornamental rose arch.
The pressure to get the waterway back open was increasing with every passing hour as narrow boats began stacking up on both sides of the breached area.
Following the canal bed survey, it was decided that the ideal dam configuration would be a 26m side cofferdam, which required a second installation team to be mobilised from another project to assist.
A 150mm "Super Silent" pump was transported from OnSite’s depot in Worcester along with 45m of suction hose and was utilised to drain down the water that remained behind the dam following the installation of the dam framework and membrane. The dam installation was finally completed at 21:00hrs, some 12 hrs after the initial call for help from BW.
At 07:30 the following morning, with British Waterways in attendance, the dam membrane was sealed to the dam and the canal basin was re-watered.
By 11.30 on Tuesday 28th July, the canal was re-opened to traffic and the job of bringing the queuing narrow boats through the locks began.
From breach to full operation in a little over 24hrs!
Back to top