The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust continues to make significant progress, with the main focus of work (as previously) being on two key areas:
Tamworth Road (A51) – Old Lock 24 to Cricket Lane
Work continues on compensating for the need to lower the canal at old lock 24 to allow for its eventual passage under Cricket Lane (potentially end 2024) through to a new lock on the other side of the road.
Three concrete buttresses bedded on the sandstone bedrock have now been put in place as ‘belt & braces’ for additional support to the Lock Keeper’s Cottage garden and further buttresses will be required to support the Cottage’s car park. In preparation for which scrub vegetation has to be cleared with the plan being to put a palisade fence up, probably around this autumn.
Work has also been ongoing on the actual canal bed at this point. Layers of compacted sandstone have made excavation difficult, necessitating access to heavier excavation machinery and concrete mixers. Substantial quantities of rubble have been created along with significant amounts of old brick, which can be cleaned and reused (work already underway via a most helpful visit from 14 students from Tamworth College – thanks folks, much appreciated).
Once the lock keeper’s cottage side of the canal is completed then work will switch to the other wall where, in the short term , it will be necessary to create a temporary towpath some 1 metre lower than the existing one. This is likely to create more than 20,000 tonnes of rubble and the need to remove most of this off site.
Overall, another very positive couple of months, marred only by an incident of petty vandalism costing some £1,500 in monetary terms and attendant time delay while our excavator was being fixed.
Andy Beck June 2023
Darnford Moor Ecology Park
By early April our contractors On Site had completed the phase 1 lining works in that they had reached the Lift Bridge. There was just the final tying-in of the new matting into the existing concrete forming the base of the Lift Bridge.
Darnford Brook crosses the canal as a sag culvert, thereby creating an inverted siphon. Upon reaching the culvert on the opposite side of the bridge a couple of rather annoying water leaks were discovered. The main leak was dealt with by means of injecting hydrophilic (water seeking) resin applied to where the water was entering through the piling. A smaller leak between the original matting and the culvert was dealt as a result of changing how the new matting was to be interfaced onto the culvert.
Formwork and shuttering was built on to the side of the culvert and filled with concrete, having first trapped a layer of new matting within the base.
From this point it was a case of continuing the matting up to the winding hole. The decision had previously been made to reduce the winding hole size (from 22 metres to 15 metres) and thereby both dispose of surplus spoil but thence also reduce the amount of matting required – thereby using the matting saved to extend the Phase 2 area contract area further towards Darnford Lane.
At the winding hole merely covering the matting with soil and gravel would not have protected the matting from impact damage caused by any turning boats and so the entire area has been cloaked in concrete instead.
Meanwhile the Trusts volunteers have been disposing of any surplus soil generated by On Site and have created a grass strip and 2.4m wide path on the Phase 2 side.
It has been difficult, not least due to the recent hot weather but also not wanting to hold up the adjacent contractor works. Luckily, the WRG brought a larger team in over a recent weekend, whilst the contractors weren’t working. The team carried out some additional earth moving and towpath works.
Written by Mike Babb June 2023
LHCRT Workparty Volunteer