North Shropshire canal repair works begin
Friday 4th February 2011, 2:49PM GMT.
Work has begun on repairing a closed section of the Shropshire Union Canal near Market Drayton after a landslip caused rocks to tumble into the water. British Waterways was forced to close the canal and towpath temporarily.
The canal and towpath were closed between bridges 58 and 59 at Tyrley Cutting, following the incident in mid-January.
Waterways bosses have had to send in a specialist climbing team to make the site safe. They hope to reopen part of the canal next week, but have revealed it is too early to say when it will reopen fully.
A British Waterways spokeswoman said: “Work has started on site and we have been forced to send in a specialist climbing team to take down some rocks that are still loose and remove some tree debris.
“The next stage is to dredge the canal of rocks that fell in. We hope to open it to restricted access by the beginning of next week.
“At this stage it is too early to say when the canal will be fully reopened and when work will be complete.”
Derrick Baddeley, of Market Drayton, who was on the canal at the time of the landslip, said the incident had left a lot of mud in the water and caused a number of rocks to become unbalanced.
He raised concerns that attempts to repair the canal could lead to further landslips.
It is the second time in recent years that British Waterways has closed a section of the canal after a hole found at Shebden Embankment, near Newport, led to a closure of the canal between bridges 44 and 48 in 2009.
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