Volunteers cruising through canal restoration work
Canal volunteers are sailing through the work to restore a route before its grand reopening.
Shropshire Union Canal workers have been restoring the Montgomery Canal, near Crickheath. Another 40m of waterproof lining has been put down and covered with building blocks.
There is now 140m that has been completed, leaving a further 190m to finish by Christmas. If the work is done in time, the stretch can be filled with water and retention tested for a grand opening in 2023.
It is anticipated that by the end of August all lining will be finished. This will enable all of the energy to be directed to towpath work and other remedial tasks.
Fred Barrett, publicity officer for the group, said "terrific progress" was made over three days by a "dedicated team".
"When a length of channel is lined with a ‘ sandwich’ of four layers of waterproofing materials, it is then ‘paved’ with building blocks to weight these layers down," he said. "These layers are put down as huge overlapping blankets which are six metres wide and stretch from the towpath, down, and across, to the top side of the offside bank.
"Other tasks involved installing a culvert under the channel near Crickheath and completing a 30m piece of channel shaping in the middle of the canal under-going restoration.
"On Sunday a stretch of embankment was covered in Riprap. This process involves covering an area of canal bank above the water-line, with soil and boulders to break up any waves created by boats, to reduce erosion and also promote grass and vegetation growth.
"The weather was showery on Friday but again kind to us, thus enabling very meaningful elements of construction to be completed."
He added: "We are always looking for new volunteers to work near Crickheath. Any interested persons should come and introduce themselves along the towpath or look for details on our website."
Further on down the canal toward Llanymynech, the group is gearing up for the re-construction of Schoolhouse Bridge which is due to begin in the near future.
In Powys, government funding is in place for restoration from Llanymynech to Arddleen, which could begin later this year.
