After months of preparation, planning, and a lot of patience, our volunteer team at Gallows Wharf has finally reached a major milestone – the big pipe is out.
Our volunteers have been working steadily through the spring on the first section of the new channel from London Road bridge along Gallows Reach. This week, the long‑awaited moment arrived as the concrete big pipe, a stubborn relic that was installed in the 1960s after the canal closed, was lifted clear of the channel.
As the pipe always has water running through it, it means a great deal of planning in order to work round it and divert the flow before removing it. Removing it means the canal base can be completed where the Big Pipe once sat, as the final stage before rewatering the first 80-85 metres of this section.
But the celebrations are short‑lived, because the next challenge is already waiting just 150 metres ahead. A capped inspection chamber, and another section of pipe that crosses the channel, will keep the team busy as they push on toward the next breakthrough.
For now, though, it’s a moment worth savouring.
5 May 2016: buried for half a century.
